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Hemal
Asked: 2010-11-04 07:44:33 +0800 CST

Cisco 1841 with Muliple WAN - load balancing & failover

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I have a Cisco 1841 router with 4 interfaces: FE 0/0 , FE0/1, AUX, CONSOLE. I have DSL line (WAN - PPP0E) which goes to FE0/1 & FE 0/0 goes to my LAN Switch.

Now we want to get another DSL line for the purpose of Load balncing/bonding/failover. I have some questions:

  1. Is it feasible to use two WAN interfaces for this purpose? I meant people are using this kind of scenario. Any opinions...
  2. Hardware: Do i need to buy Cisco WAN interface expansion card module or
  3. I just can buy Cisco etherswitch 4 port module (which can connect to my LAN switch)

I really appreciate any feedback for experts..

Thanks, Hemal

cisco

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Is your LAN switch managed? In other words, is it VLAN capable?

    If it's VLAN capable, you could have one VLAN on the switch for each DSL connection, and trunk them both back into Fa0/1, then split them back out on the router's subinterfaces.

    You could buy either a PPPoA/PPPoE modem and an ethernet HWIC, or an ADSL HWIC, but be aware they're bloody expensive.

    The cisco etherswitch modules are similarly pricy. I'd probably be tempted to get a second hand Cisco Catalyst 2950 off ebay, and use that for the Vlan solution.

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  2. An alternative if you're not dead set on Cisco you could get a small branch series Juniper SRX220 or 240 with two ADSL2 adapters in it. Set equal cost routing to each interface and it would load balance or set a secondary default route preference to the other interface. I like things integrated. This would also give you a ton more ethernet interfaces and they're not too pricy.

    If you stick with the Cisco, you're short on Ethernet interfaces to be able to connect to the device upstream to two DSL modem. I'd get the ADSL WIC myself.

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