Dual WAN scheduling

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jowanu

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#289406 3-Sep-2021 19:59

Our VDSL connection simply isn't cutting the mustard this lockdown with 22 down and 1 up. Four professional adults all trying to simultaneously Teams, Zoom, file share & collaborate during the workday causes many issues with our up bandwidth being so constrained. 20km out of Auckland and we are never going to get fibre, this is the best it'll ever be and I need a way to improve the situation.

In addition to VDSL and as a lockdown experiment, I have subscribed to a Wireless Nation RBI plan with 120GB 5pm-midnight / unlimited midnight-5pm. With the RBI modem perched in my roof rafters, this provides a respectable 4G speed of 30-50 down and 3-8 up. However, we watch our TV content via streaming at peak times and 120GB at peak simply won't cut it. The VDSL down speeds more than cater for this during the peak periods.

My VDSL modem router is a Draytek 2860. It allows dual WAN load balancing and I have connected the Draytek's WAN port to the Wireless Nation's Huawei modem. I've selected sessions based load balancing so the sessions are shared between RBI & VDSL WANs. During the day, all works great and the speeds are much improved. The RBI modem has been configured with parental controls to restrict the internet connection to the Draytek IP address between 5pm & 4am so we don't use the very limited peak data and invalidate our plan prematurely for the month.

However at 5pm when the parental restrictions kick in on the RBI router, our internet completely drops on the network. Our VDSL connection is still active, but for some reason because the RBI WAN is down, the traffic is not routed to the VDSL WAN. I have tried implementing WAN ping detection to 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 for 10 tries to disable it, but it refuses to drop it. Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong?

Failing this, does anyone know of a dual WAN router that can schedule the WAN connections?

1024kb

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#2771857 3-Sep-2021 22:42

I’m gonna advise you to do what I advise everyone else in this type of situation. Go Skinny. $55/month unlimited wireless broadband, no contract. $99 first month buys the modem & includes 1st month of data - so if it doesn’t work for you, your maximum risk is $99 & you’ve still got the modem to resell.

Skinny do have an address-checker to see whether or not your residence is within a supported area. What they also have is a separate delivery address form. They’re as aware of fluid modem location as their users are. So if your home is not in an approved area, find an address that is. Now get the modem delivered to the unsupported address - your home. Upon arrival, do an initial test setup. Now leave it on & forget to take the modem to the nominated supported address.

If you get 4G Spark reception (I expect you do just 20km out of Auckland) then Skinny WBB will work for you. Even if your Spark phone reception is dodgy, the 4G Huawei modem will probably still pick up a decent service.

Your problem is caused by an artificial constraint - the plan limits imposed by your RBI provider. Push those to the side & enjoy the human right to fast internet access.

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nztim

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#2771863 3-Sep-2021 23:49

1024kb: I’m gonna advise you to do what I advise everyone else in this type of situation. Go Skinny. $55/month unlimited wireless broadband, no contract. $99 first month buys the modem & includes 1st month of data - so if it doesn’t work for you, your maximum risk is $99 & you’ve still got the modem to resell.

Skinny do have an address-checker to see whether or not your residence is within a supported area. What they also have is a separate delivery address form. They’re as aware of fluid modem location as their users are. So if your home is not in an approved area, find an address that is. Now get the modem delivered to the unsupported address - your home. Upon arrival, do an initial test setup. Now leave it on & forget to take the modem to the nominated supported address.

If you get 4G Spark reception (I expect you do just 20km out of Auckland) then Skinny WBB will work for you. Even if your Spark phone reception is dodgy, the 4G Huawei modem will probably still pick up a decent service.

Your problem is caused by an artificial constraint - the plan limits imposed by your RBI provider. Push those to the side & enjoy the human right to fast internet access.

This is a blatant breech of the T&Cs of FWA, which clearly states that the modem is only to be used at the nominated address, the reason for this is they need to manage cell tower contention

Spark reserve the right to disconnect any user not using it at the nominated address

Any views expressed on these forums are my own and don't necessarily reflect those of my employer.

michaelmurfy

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#2771867 4-Sep-2021 00:48

nztim:

This is a blatant breech of the T&Cs of FWA, which clearly states that the modem is only to be used at the nominated address, the reason for this is they need to manage cell tower contention

That it is but I am leaving the tip here as there are Spark / Skinny staff members who frequent these forums and feedback like this are important to them to stop this from happening. So, don't do this - it is a total dick move.

Unrelated note - @jowanu is there a Wireless ISP that covers your area like Lightwire? Not sure what side of Auckland you are on so it may be worth providing a general location as people on here can give you a recommendation. Basically a Wireless ISP doesn't use cell towers and instead use point to point wireless via a small antenna on your roof - you get great internet through these providers.

Lastly - remember, Starlink is a thing too.

So don't think you're stuck with these speeds and caps as all this is changing very quickly. If you're wanting an answer to your question then an advanced router like any Mikrotik HAP AC3 will be able to handle this fine however do note these routers are very complex compared to the Draytek so learning will be required.

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jowanu

15 posts

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#2771904 4-Sep-2021 08:47

I’m gonna advise you to do what I advise everyone else in this type of situation. Go Skinny. $55/month unlimited wireless broadband, no contract. $99 first month buys the modem & includes 1st month of data - so if it doesn’t work for you, your maximum risk is $99 & you’ve still got the modem to resell.

Skinny do have an address-checker to see whether or not your residence is within a supported area. What they also have is a separate delivery address form. They’re as aware of fluid modem location as their users are. So if your home is not in an approved area, find an address that is. Now get the modem delivered to the unsupported address - your home. Upon arrival, do an initial test setup. Now leave it on & forget to take the modem to the nominated supported address.

If you get 4G Spark reception (I expect you do just 20km out of Auckland) then Skinny WBB will work for you. Even if your Spark phone reception is dodgy, the 4G Huawei modem will probably still pick up a decent service.

Your problem is caused by an artificial constraint - the plan limits imposed by your RBI provider. Push those to the side & enjoy the human right to fast internet access.

Due to my immediate need I have thought about that - however it would not be reliable as Skinny could pull the plug at any time. I'm sure they would catch on to this quickly, considering Spark could only offer max 40GB per month from my tower.

That it is but I am leaving the tip here as there are Spark / Skinny staff members who frequent these forums and feedback like this are important to them to stop this from happening. So, don't do this - it is a total dick move.

Unrelated note - @jowanu is there a Wireless ISP that covers your area like Lightwire? Not sure what side of Auckland you are on so it may be worth providing a general location as people on here can give you a recommendation. Basically a Wireless ISP doesn't use cell towers and instead use point to point wireless via a small antenna on your roof - you get great internet through these providers.

Lastly - remember, Starlink is a thing too.

So don't think you're stuck with these speeds and caps as all this is changing very quickly. If you're wanting an answer to your question then an advanced router like any Mikrotik HAP AC3 will be able to handle this fine however do note these routers are very complex compared to the Draytek so learning will be required.

Location is Coatesville. We have a handful of fixed wireless providers such as Bluedoor but they seem like mum+pop outfits with lax customer service and issue resolution. Our neighbours have it and have been in the situation where their internet dropped out Friday arvo and down all weekend until Monday. That is simply unacceptable for a service that is essential for day to day life.

Starlink - not here & don't know when we'll be eligible. Unfortunately this won't fix my immediate issue.

In terms of the MikroTik router - you're saying it has the ability to schedule multiple WANs? I don't mind figuring things out on the router, but are you able to point me to a resource explaining how to do this? I couldn't really find anything on the googles.

cyril7

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#2771907 4-Sep-2021 08:53

On Mikrotik, I would suggest schedule script to either adjust route metric, or at worst disable one Wan or other.

Cyril

pih

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#2772002 4-Sep-2021 11:19

jowanu:
Starlink - not here & don't know when we'll be eligible. Unfortunately this won't fix my immediate issue.

We're just northwest of you and we just got our confirmation a couple of days ago. If you have tried in the past few days and it's still saying you have to wait then I would expect it will only be a matter of weeks - if that - before you can place your order.

If you're ok with the price then I expect it will blow all the other options out of the water in terms of speed, data caps, and probably even reliability, depending on obstructions around your house (likely the biggest potential showstopper).

jowanu

15 posts

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#2772639 6-Sep-2021 05:59

Thanks for all the responses. Over the weekend I devised an easy solution to this by hard switching the RBI router with a scheduled smart switch.