Extremely Complicated Home Network Advice

TowerGuru

TowerGuru

Expert Member
Joined
Apr 2, 2006
Messages
2,340
Reaction score
44
Location
Durban
Hi Guys,

I currently use a fixed LTE connection with a 1TB cap.

I will soon also be getting 200mbps symmetrical fibre.

I will be combining these two connections with a TP Link Load Balancing Router which i have lying around.

I would then connect my PC and a WAP from the Load Balance Router.

HOWEVER i want to be able to switch my PC between the 3 different routers (Fibre/LTE/LoadBalancer) without having to physically unplug the ethernet cable and swap it out. Is there like a switch or something that I can use that has 3 inputs and 1 output and allows me to switch between the 3 inputs?

Sorry if this is a stupid question, networking is not really my forte.
 
TowerGuru said:
Hi Guys,

I currently use a fixed LTE connection with a 1TB cap.

I will soon also be getting 200mbps symmetrical fibre.

I will be combining these two connections with a TP Link Load Balancing Router which i have lying around.

I would then connect my PC and a WAP from the Load Balance Router.

HOWEVER i want to be able to switch my PC between the 3 different routers (Fibre/LTE/LoadBalancer) without having to physically unplug the ethernet cable and swap it out. Is there like a switch or something that I can use that has 3 inputs and 1 output and allows me to switch between the 3 inputs?

Sorry if this is a stupid question, networking is not really my forte.
Click to expand...
Build a firewall with 4x NIC's
 
Crowley said:
Serious question but why? Dump the LTE and use the fibre.
Click to expand...

I set our firewall up at work like this for years.
Back when we only had adsl.

ADSL goes down the firewall changes over to 3g.

Sure he could do the same if he wants?
 
I might understand incorrectly, but are you going to have 3 seperate IP's for each WAN/Internet device? if so simple batch script with netsh commands to change your default gateway on PC.
 
Peon said:
I might understand incorrectly, but are you going to have 3 seperate IP's for each WAN/Internet device? if so simple batch script with netsh commands to change your default gateway on PC.
Click to expand...

but that would need to be done for every device?

Just set up a firewall with 3 or 4 NIC's.

One is local interface, the others are internet interfaces.

If Fibre goes down firewall just switches to LTE for you.

Any old pc with 4 or more cores and 2gb or more ram will do it.
 
AstroTurf said:
but that would need to be done for every device?

Just set up a firewall with 3 or 4 NIC's.

One is local interface, the others are internet interfaces.

If Fibre goes down firewall just switches to LTE for you.

Any old pc with 4 or more cores and 2gb or more ram will do it.
Click to expand...
Yeah can you explain what an NIC is and how i set them up? This is pretty advanced for my knowledge base.
 
AstroTurf said:
but that would need to be done for every device?

Just set up a firewall with 3 or 4 NIC's.

One is local interface, the others are internet interfaces.

If Fibre goes down firewall just switches to LTE for you.

Any old pc with 4 or more cores and 2gb or more ram will do it.
Click to expand...
He mentioned just his 1 PC
 
Doesn't the load balancer balance the WAN connections, i.e. LTE and Fibre. The PC would connect to LB - why would you want to switch between LTE and Fibre?

An option would be to replace the LB with a mikrotik and have it manage the connections - so some connections would go out vie LTE and others via Fibre.

I guess i am trying to understand the why?
 
powermzii said:
Doesn't the load balancer balance the WAN connections, i.e. LTE and Fibre. The PC would connect to LB - why would you want to switch between LTE and Fibre?

An option would be to replace the LB with a mikrotik and have it manage the connections - so some connections would go out vie LTE and others via Fibre.

I guess i am trying to understand the why?
Click to expand...
It also allows you to use both connections at the same time (faster connection) but won't help in a 1 person scenario :)
 
IIRC TP link load balancers are only 100mbps.

Also, you can set rules on the load balancer. Simply connect to the load balancer and then change the gateway on the load balancer to change internet device.
 
powermzii said:
Doesn't the load balancer balance the WAN connections, i.e. LTE and Fibre. The PC would connect to LB - why would you want to switch between LTE and Fibre?

An option would be to replace the LB with a mikrotik and have it manage the connections - so some connections would go out vie LTE and others via Fibre.

I guess i am trying to understand the why?
Click to expand...
Yeah, why can't TG just log into the LB and change the WAN interface manually?
 
Speedster said:
IIRC TP link load balancers are only 100mbps.

Also, you can set rules on the load balancer. Simply connect to the load balancer and then change the gateway on the load balancer to change internet device.
Click to expand...
oh crap. you're right. I forgot about that. they do make a gigabit version, its just a bit pricey.
 
Last edited:
powermzii said:
Doesn't the load balancer balance the WAN connections, i.e. LTE and Fibre. The PC would connect to LB - why would you want to switch between LTE and Fibre?

An option would be to replace the LB with a mikrotik and have it manage the connections - so some connections would go out vie LTE and others via Fibre.

I guess i am trying to understand the why?
Click to expand...
When I last used this set up, I could not get Plex to work on my Android TV boxes if they went via WAP on the Load Balancer. I had to unplug the load balancer and hook my PC (Plex Server) up to one of the two networks and connect my Android TV to that same network.
 
I have 3 LTE routers connected to my network, one as the primary one on my DHCP router WAN connection, the other 2 as non DHCP (Static IP's) so when I want to connect to one of the backup LTE's I just change my gateway (I use as small cmd script). Fast & simple. Does not affect ping in games, speeds are great.
 
TowerGuru said:
When I last used this set up, I could not get Plex to work on my Android TV boxes if they went via WAP on the Load Balancer. I had to unplug the load balancer and hook my PC (Plex Server) up to one of the two networks and connect my Android TV to that same network.
Click to expand...
When I set this up on my Mikrotik router I could specify which WAN link each device used / preferred, e.g. Fibre has lower latency than LTE so for gaming devices use the Fibre
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X