Load-balancing between Neotel and Telkom

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The_Unbeliever

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Hi there

Will it possible (once Neotel gets an Ethernet device out) to get a router which will support load balancing between two other ethernet devices?

So that, should Neotel goes down, Telkom will still provide access, and should Telkom go down, Neotel still provide access.

Also, when heavy downloading occurs, it'll be shifted to the fastest, still giving an adequate web browsing experience?

Regards

Libs
 
Won't that give you trouble with constantly shifting between IPs? e.g. forums loggin you out etc.
 
The_Librarian said:
http://mybroadband.co.za/news/Broadband/3863.html

So it might be entirely possible.

Get two neotel lines, and two telkom lines :D
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The problem with that is that the connection bonding is done by two routers - one at your end and one somewhere on the internet... It only provides redundancy on your 'last mile' portions but not really on your connection.

Load balancing can be achieved quite effectively using something like pfSense which uses round robin logic to distribute each TCP session over a different link which as HavocXphere points out - does often make it appear that you are continuously hopping between IP's.

And that leads me to my brain fart :p

Has anyone seem any broadband load balancing tools that are able to route more intelligently than simple round robin? Eg - maintaining a kind of state table so that the same server is accessed over the same link along with performance monitoring so that traffic is optimally routed over the link that is performing better to a specific location.

(This would of course be easy if you could open a BGP session with your ISP... but I don't see that happening any time soon :D )
 
I think that all of this will be redundat soon.

I can see a lot of providers offering single packages covering ADSL, Wireless, with both seperate local and international caps.

Ie you will have one provider and you will be able to connect to whatever medium you choose and your cap will me managed on their side. So if your ADSL is down you can switch to WIMAX etc
 
Nerfherder said:
I can see a lot of providers offering single packages covering ADSL, Wireless, with both seperate local and international caps.
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Even with this setup there is a single point of failure (being the provider) and I expect that these kind of services will still be provided over one network core. This is not really sufficient redundancy for some people's needs.
 
ambo said:
Has anyone seem any broadband load balancing tools that are able to route more intelligently than simple round robin? Eg - maintaining a kind of state table so that the same server is accessed over the same link along with performance monitoring so that traffic is optimally routed over the link that is performing better to a specific location.
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Though not on the cheap side, Cisco IOS gives one a heck of a lot of control & flexibility and could do much of what you describe & more.
 
I agree that Cisco is your best bet. I have only seen one router other than going Cisco that has the ability to do load balancing for you. But you will pay for the privilige of either.
 
It can be done on the el-cheapo Linksys WRT54G/GS/GL using an appropriate script. There is a dual (and triple) WAN solution posted in the DD-WRT forums. You can also configure the router's LAN ports into additional WAN ports.
 
froot said:
I have only seen one router other than going Cisco that has the ability to do load balancing for you.
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Did you miss where i mentioned pfSense (open source) above :p

DD-WRT is also cool - you can move mountains with those WRT's and a bit of open source firmware!! :D
 
Ambo I assumed your question was more about the level of intellegence/customisation that can be applied to load balancing algorithm.

This is where IOS shines by allowing one to choose packet or flow based, whether src or dst or both are are used as to define a cached flow. Also linking policy routing with nbar (deep packet inspection) or ip sla monitors, one can load balance by type of traffic, even by specific urls or by link parameters such as latency & jitter etc. The permutations are endless.
 
Roman4604 said:
Ambo I assumed your question was more about the level of intellegence/customisation that can be applied to load balancing algorithm.

This is where IOS shines by allowing one to choose packet or flow based, whether src or dst or both are are used as to define a cached flow. Also linking policy routing with nbar (deep packet inspection) or ip sla monitors, one can load balance by type of traffic, even by specific urls or by link parameters such as latency & jitter etc. The permutations are endless.
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I work with Cisco... but I can't afford that kind of kit at home :p was just thinking out loud about what other options might exist ;)
 
ambo said:
I work with Cisco... but I can't afford that kind of kit at home
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If you dig around, sometimes you can find 2nd hand/reconditioned Cisco kit at bargin prices e.g. eBay or locally TFI.
 
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