Best Practice For Home Network With 2 LTE Routers?

Pixual

Pixual

Expert Member
Joined
Sep 22, 2006
Messages
2,412
Reaction score
461
Location
Next Door To Alice
Apologies if this has been covered before - I don't really know too much about networking so not sure what to search for.

Basically I have two LTE routers in my home. One has the Rain 19/7 unlimited sim in it (Huawei B318) and the other has the Afrihost/MTN sim (Huawei B618) which I use only on some devices in the evenings when Rain data switches off.

At the moment I have to manually switch each router off and on when I want either to be active, but this always causes me grief when DHCP assigns new IP's to each device connecting to the active router (Plex and my smart TV usually get very confused when this occurs). Not only that, my Synergy client/server software (mouse/keyboard across two Macs) has to be re-started every time a new IP is assigned to the server. PITA.

Ideally what I would like to do is have both modems running constantly, but then have all devices only connecting to the Rain modem during the day and others to both the Rain and Afrihost/MTN modem in the evening. I don't want some things to connect to my MTN router at all.

Is this even possible?
 
It is possible yes. How are you distributing wifi and lan services in your network?

You could put another router / loadbalancer to manage the 318 and 618, then setup rules as to when what device is used. You then also alleviate the different DHCP settings as your router / loadbalancer would manage this for your network. This would work best if you are only using the 318 and 618 to get internet access but not to serve Wifi. You could then get the router to do this - so the router manages the Wifi and LAN as well as which device is used to breakout to the internet while the 318 and 618 only serve as gateways
 
powermzii said:
It is possible yes. How are you distributing wifi and lan services in your network?

You could put another router / loadbalancer to manage the 318 and 618, then setup rules as to when what device is used. You then also alleviate the different DHCP settings as your router / loadbalancer would manage this for your network. This would work best if you are only using the 318 and 618 to get internet access but not to serve Wifi. You could then get the router to do this - so the router manages the Wifi and LAN as well as which device is used to breakout to the internet while the 318 and 618 only serve as gateways
Click to expand...

Thanks. It sounds a bit above my pay grade! I don't have any fancy setup at the moment, basically every device can connect to either of these modems at any time. In the evenings I only want the smart TV and my main computer to connect to Afrihost (B618) but during the day I need them to connect to the Rain modem (B318) too.

I have a Tenda FH307 which is no longer in use (was last set up as an extender for the B618). Would this be able to serve as the router / load balancer you mention? So this receives internet from either of the modems and then distributes IP's and access to everything?

eg2505 said:
simpler Idea OP,
get a sonoff switch on the B618 to turn it off in the evenings,
and add both WIFI of the B315 and the B618 to your devices.
Click to expand...

I have thought of doing that, but it doesn't solve the issue of DHCP giving out new IP's for devices that are looking in the wrong place for data.
 
powermzii said:
That is actually so simple and yet so elegant.. talk about me over engineering things
Click to expand...

KISS principle,
same boat as OP get a router and hook it up and configure it and all the rest of it.
too complicated,

use a sonoff, set one to go off at 6PM and use the other all the time,
add the wifi of both modems to your devices, and your sorted.
 
Pixual said:
OK I get it. What Sonoff device can you recommend? I am looking at Takealot now and there are loads!
Click to expand...

cheapest and simplest one will do.

Takealot.com: Online Shopping | SA's leading online store

South Africa's leading online store. Fast, reliable delivery to your door. Many ways to pay. Shop anything you can imagine: TVs, laptops, cellphones, kitchen appliances, toys, books, beauty & more. Shop the mobile app anytime, anywhere.
www.takealot.com www.takealot.com

we have the same one, it still needs a wifi to work,
so hook it into the one that stays on constantly, configure it via ewelink and hook your Rain Unlimited router to it.
even if your load-shed, it keeps its settings.



or you could go and get a timer from ellies from markro will do the smae thing.
 
Either a mechanical solution (power down) if there is only 1 router of each
Or a technological solution (failover) using a router configured for it - not all routers will do it,in fact few will since it's a bit more specialized

Both might require some technical appetite but sonoffs would be relatively easy to do - but lacking other features
 
Initially when we had both the afrihost and Rain Routers, this was the simplest solution,
sonoffs sometimes lose their settings but its a cheap way of managing your Rain modem without delving into load-balancers and failovers.
 
I have 2 LTE Routers and 1 WISP CPE. So technically 3 internet connections on one network. I use the Wisp CPE directly into my DHCP router as my default connection (gateway IP is my DHCP). My MikroTik LTE CPE for Rain uncapped is set DHCP off, fixed IP same for my Afrihost MTN LTE on a Hauwei B618. I then configure my devices to use whichever gateway I want to use for that specific internet connection. On my PC I have a script file for each gateway, run the script to modify my IP settings as needed.

A bit overkill but my Wisp was useless for 2 months, I have 3 adults, one teenager and myself connected plus the partners ... I dont share my connection when I game or stream.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X