2 WAN interfaces on a Router with the same fixed IP address

[twhittle1]

Hi,

I have been presented with the below problem and I'm hoping someone here might be able to help as I don't know if this is possible.

The ideal solution we are trying to achieve is having 2 fibre broadband connections into a router. Each of the interfaces which the fibre broadband connects to should have the same static IP address. Is this possible? I don't see how it is hense why I'm posting.

If it's not possible is there a way of the 2nd interface taking the fixed IP address of the 1st interface if the first interface fails. The idea is there should be one static IP address which is always available.

Can anyone advise? I don't need a configuration or anything but if you could point me in the right direction of the methods I could use to do this I can research it more and give it a go.

Let me know if you need any further information.

Many Thanks,

Tom Whittle

[cadet alain · Accepted solution]

Hi,

if you want failover with static routes you can use floating static route along with enhanced object tracking.

The only way to have 2 interfaces with the same ip address is to use VRF lite or L3 MPLS VPNs.

The only other way I see is unnumbered interfaces but I don't think it pertains to your problem.

Regards.

Alain.

[Jon Marshall · Accepted solution]

Tom

How are the connections presented to you ie. are they ethernet connections. If so you may want to also look at bridging where you can have 2 interfaces in the same subnet and you apply the IP address to a bridged interface (BVI).

Having said that it might help if you could tell us exactly what you were trying to achieve and there may be other solutions we could suggest.

Jon

[twhittle1]

Hi Both,

Thank you for your help with this. I'm going to have a look into the things suggested above and see if I can recommend them to my colleague. I'm working with someone else on this so I only have 2nd hand information so i can't describe very well exactly what we are trying to do. However I'll investigate the above, relay it back and we can go from there.

Thanks for your help, It's been very useful.

Kind Regards,

Tom Whittle