Derrick
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The D-Link DLM-3500 is a WAN-link aggregator capable of providing all the WAN load-balancing and failover functions your growing enterprise could need. It’s easily configurable, even by the average technician, and offers genuine international-standard broadband speeds, although admittedly at very high tariffs.
The D-Link DLM-3500 is designed to aggregate multiple ADSL lines invisibly for a fast-growing business.
It’s a function that gurus have been performing for larger corporations for years, generally utilising software by building a custom BSD box purely for WAN load-balancing functions. Linux works too, but has certain key limitations.
However, no such limitations constrain the D-Link DLM-3500. Although I wasn’t able to use all four ADSL ports on the device simultaneously, I did test it using a pair of MWEB 4Mbps uncapped business lines. With this D-Link box plugged in between the WAN and then connected to the LAN router and set up as the Internet gateway of choice, you can log into the Web-based UI remotely and start toying with the feature set.
On the LAN side, this device is capable of assigning IPs across your entire network - even across multiple domains and with different IP ranges. However, it’s really the WAN features we’re interested in. Plug both ADSL lines into the designated ports, and the router immediately recognises them and starts using them.
There’s a broad range of setup options available per WAN link, but we didn’t really need to do any of these, beyond specifying the up and downstream capabilities of our link, which were set at the default 512/512 at first. Although both of our links were from the same provider, one of the key benefits of using a device such as this is that if one of your ISPs goes down, you’ll still be able to work as usual because the DLM-3500 features automatic failover. To this end, of course, individual WAN links can feature completely different settings, providing the user with a reliable Internet connection at all times.
There’s a full range of routing policies that can be set as well. We tested the most basic load-balancing configuration, with two links equally weighted. Connecting to the Net via a machine on the LAN revealed speeds almost double that of using a single line. More importantly, yank one WAN link out, and the user won’t even notice apart from a mild slowdown. The hardware immediately detects the failed link and automatically routes all Internet traffic via the remaining WAN linkup.
The UI is easy to navigate, and with some basic knowledge of the IP network and how routing works, won’t require high-end skills to configure and maintain, despite including some rather high-end functionality. Moreover, the device feels robust and, knowing the DLink product line well, is likely to run for years in the corner without ever having issues.
If your business relies heavily on the presence of an Internet connection, having this level of automatic failover protection in place is all but invaluable. If your business is rapidly outgrowing your available bandwidth, aggregating multiple, fast WAN links into one seamless network is well worth the cost of this device, and would provide a broadband link closer in line with international standards, although you will be paying Telkom and your various ISPs a healthy sum each month.
There are other options available from companies such as HotBrick, but none quite so affordable or as user friendly as the DLM-3500.
The D-Link DLM-3500 is designed to aggregate multiple ADSL lines invisibly for a fast-growing business.
It’s a function that gurus have been performing for larger corporations for years, generally utilising software by building a custom BSD box purely for WAN load-balancing functions. Linux works too, but has certain key limitations.
However, no such limitations constrain the D-Link DLM-3500. Although I wasn’t able to use all four ADSL ports on the device simultaneously, I did test it using a pair of MWEB 4Mbps uncapped business lines. With this D-Link box plugged in between the WAN and then connected to the LAN router and set up as the Internet gateway of choice, you can log into the Web-based UI remotely and start toying with the feature set.
On the LAN side, this device is capable of assigning IPs across your entire network - even across multiple domains and with different IP ranges. However, it’s really the WAN features we’re interested in. Plug both ADSL lines into the designated ports, and the router immediately recognises them and starts using them.
There’s a broad range of setup options available per WAN link, but we didn’t really need to do any of these, beyond specifying the up and downstream capabilities of our link, which were set at the default 512/512 at first. Although both of our links were from the same provider, one of the key benefits of using a device such as this is that if one of your ISPs goes down, you’ll still be able to work as usual because the DLM-3500 features automatic failover. To this end, of course, individual WAN links can feature completely different settings, providing the user with a reliable Internet connection at all times.
There’s a full range of routing policies that can be set as well. We tested the most basic load-balancing configuration, with two links equally weighted. Connecting to the Net via a machine on the LAN revealed speeds almost double that of using a single line. More importantly, yank one WAN link out, and the user won’t even notice apart from a mild slowdown. The hardware immediately detects the failed link and automatically routes all Internet traffic via the remaining WAN linkup.
The UI is easy to navigate, and with some basic knowledge of the IP network and how routing works, won’t require high-end skills to configure and maintain, despite including some rather high-end functionality. Moreover, the device feels robust and, knowing the DLink product line well, is likely to run for years in the corner without ever having issues.
If your business relies heavily on the presence of an Internet connection, having this level of automatic failover protection in place is all but invaluable. If your business is rapidly outgrowing your available bandwidth, aggregating multiple, fast WAN links into one seamless network is well worth the cost of this device, and would provide a broadband link closer in line with international standards, although you will be paying Telkom and your various ISPs a healthy sum each month.
There are other options available from companies such as HotBrick, but none quite so affordable or as user friendly as the DLM-3500.