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Maybe I am using the wrong search terms, but I am having problems finding the answer to my question. We have internal servers hosting our web site. We would like to bring in an alternate provider so that we can have service should our current provider go down. Is it possible to set it up so that someone hitting our domain can come in through the alternate provider? If it is, how does one go about setting this up (links to documentation would be great)?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

ewwhite
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Opus Krokus
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  • What types of lines do you have available to you? T1? DSL? Cable? Wireless? – ewwhite Feb 11 '13 at 17:04
  • We are currently using multiple T1s from our current provider and are looking at using business class cable from the second provider. – Opus Krokus Feb 11 '13 at 17:05

1 Answers1

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My suggestion for a business or organization looking for multi-WAN connectivity without complexity is to use a link-balancer device. My preference is the Elfiq offering, but these are also available from Peplink, Barracuda, Fortinet, etc.

The Elfiq unit has an iDNS feature, which uses delegated DNS records to handle inbound activity. In this setup, your website's DNS records "A" records become "NS" records and point to the Elfiq's internal DNS server, which will return the right IP value for the which public connection to use.

The load-balancing algorithm has plenty of options, weights, or can just be used as a straight failover setup.

Also see:

How can I team or balance two DSL connections?

Two identical fiber optic broadband lines working as one

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ewwhite
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  • Thank you for your help! How does this work for getting the domain to reach your system through either provider? We obviously have separate IPs from each provider, and the domain points to a specific IP. Correct? (I am not doubting your solution will work. I'm just trying to wrap my mind around how). – Opus Krokus Feb 12 '13 at 17:33
  • The Elfiq sits in front of your firewall and and masquerades the IP/IP-range it presents on the inside interface to your firewall. So it's a drop-in solution. You don't reconfigure your firewall to make this work. – ewwhite Feb 12 '13 at 18:38