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nb99

4 posts

Wannabe Geek


#23901 11-Jul-2008 00:59
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I'd like to get comment on this arrangement for a small office internet connectivity setup.
I'm looking at a dual-WAN load balancing router with a 2mbs wireless or fibre, and an ADSL,  because of the following trade-off.

To get guaranteed minimum bandwidth for VOIP and head-office VPN traffic, we need a wireless or fibre connection .
(UNS is expensive where we are, and because of budget constraints, and being out of CityLink's fibre zone, it's probably going to be Araneo wireless.)
Other internet activity is not so critical, but may chew lots of international data.
However, "non-local" data charges are extortionate on those media (appear to be tens of dollars per gigabyte), compared to about $1 / gb for ADSL.
Because of the H/O VPN also needing the 'good' connection, I can't use the simple tactic usually recommended to physically separate the connection used for VOIP.

But both the VOIP and H/O go to known IP addresses - and I get the impression that the load-balancing rules can use that to
send them down the reliable bandwidth link (without having to get into vlans), leaving the "other" data hogs to take their chance with the ADSL.

Any comment from "ahould work" to "here's a better way"  welcome...

(we'll have 3 or 4 SIP trunk channels to an AsteriskNow or TrixBox, with a couple of POTS lines for overflow/fail-over/ADSL bearer/occasional modem use)

Looking at routers (both in the 6 to 700 $ range):
    NetGear FVS336G Prosafe Dual WAN.   (nice extra: 4 x 1 Gb LAN ports)

    LevelOne FBR-2000. Dual WAN         (nice extra: Built-in DMZ port)



load balancing router

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rphenix
985 posts

Ultimate Geek

Lifetime subscriber

  #146649 11-Jul-2008 11:27
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This sounds like our office. You could get a sonicwall (get a pro series if you can rather than a TZ)  but for the same price you can get a nice 1u ibm server to use as a linux firewall the advantage is how adaptable a linux firewall can be and zero licensing issues.

Id recommend spending a little more on a really good firewall weve got a sonicwall in one office and it annoys me with its "quirks" that you just have to live with compared to our auckland office which is a linux box that works really well and I can use it for other tasks.

If you dont have any experience with linux you could try IPCOP or smoothwall on some old pc lying around (a pentium is honestly good enough for the task).



nb99

4 posts

Wannabe Geek


  #146935 11-Jul-2008 18:24
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>>the advantage is how adaptable a linux firewall can be

Yes - I was looking at Zebra as a possibility for constructing a load-balancing router from a linux box...
(and discarded laptops with cracked screens can be put to good use for such! )

nb



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