Dual WAN on RV016 - Need education and advice

[johnstolte]

I have been using this RV016 router for a few years and it is been fine.  My internet connection is a T1 line.  I have several public IP address, all pointing to various servers, routed through 1 to 1 NAT.

I'm considering adding a second WAN source via Comcast Cable Business Service.

My first issue is conceptual I guess.  Is there any way that if my T1 which has all these public IPs, goes down, the outside world could get to those servers?  If so, how? How could ANY internet connection ever be backed up by another one, when it comes to static IP addresses?

My primary reason for adding the second WAN is because we just dont have enough bandwidth, and the cable service has a lot more bandwidth than the T1, and is much more affordable.

2nd question:  If the first is not possible (as I suspect) Can I just set certain outbound sessions to use the cable WAN?  For example, trying to9 watch Youtube videos is painful dueto lack of bandwidth.  Can I set it up such that any request to Youtube would be routed through teh cable instead of the T1?

I suppose more questions will come up, but if I get these answered it might point me in the right direction.

Thanks

John

[dataprocomputers]

Without any specific knowledge about the RV016 (I've used similar products though), I can advise you on some things.

If I understand correctly, you want the public to connect to your T1 IPs. If you T1 goes down, how can you use your cable (assuming it will also be static) to connect. This is what DNS is for. For example, take a look as a nslookup for www.google.com:

Non-authoritative answer:

Name:    www.l.google.com

Addresses:  2607:f8b0:400c:c03::67

          173.194.75.147

          173.194.75.106

          173.194.75.105

          173.194.75.104

          173.194.75.103

          173.194.75.99

Aliases:  www.google.com

If, for example, 173.194.75.147 goes down, the client will go to 173.194.75.106 and continue moving down that list.

You should use be using a domain and have your clients look at that domain and not the direct IP. This is obvious for web servers, but sometimes people tend to use direct IPs for other things like Mobile to Server connections. You should modify your domain's DNS to point to your T1 first and your cable second. This are Type "A" DNS records.

I don't have an RV016 in front of me but if I remember correctly, you might be able to set change the WAN priorities for certain websites. If you can't do it based on host name, you may be able to do it by IP range. If you just want to move all website traffic to the cable then set a priority for Ports 80 and 443. Remember, by setting a priority, the connection will fallback in case of WAN failure.

[johnstolte]

Thank you Carlos, that is very informative.

I do mange the otherwise simple DNS for all our domais, but I didn't know you could could do this with DNS. 

This may be over my head, so I'll have to do some readinga and maybe hire some help.

I do some small web/email hosting for others as well, most of which I have DNS control over, some I do not, but I can make recommendations.

I will probably need to come back here for more help.

Thanks again!