Dual WAN connection using Cisco 2800 series router

[kltconsulting]

Is it possible to put a second WAN interface card into a 2800 series router to connect two different ISP's to the same router. I need to load balance and use static routes, so I was hoping to plug two different ISP services into one router. I had been using a Symantec Gateway Security Dual WAN router\firewall, but this device isn't very stable, so I'd like to use the Cisco router instead. For example, I want to direct image data thru WAN1, and all other Internet based traffic thru WAN2. I want to do this because the image traffic requires a certain amount of bandwidth.

[paolo bevilacqua]

Sure, the router can do that. The router sends packets back always to the ISP that has received the request from, so if you want "image data" to be sent out the link with ISP A, you need to make sure that the client goes to an address that ISP A has given you.

Hope this helps, please rate post if it does!

[kltconsulting]

I guess my question was geared more towards "can a router be set up to be Dual WAN"?. Does it merely need another interface card installation, or is there configuration that needs to be done to utilize the two connections? On my Symantec, the GUI and software were already set up to utilize the dual WAN. Obviously, the Cisco router isn't set up for that, so I don't know what I need to do to utilize both WAN links. For example....Does a single VLAN need to be creatd for both, does routing between the two links need to be set up, etc, etc....

[paolo bevilacqua]

Sure, the router can be setup to have many many WAN and LAN interfaces. And yes, configuration is needed, so it would be better if you can have someone of the trade doing it, but you can do it yourself using the CLI, reading the documentation and asking questions here as necessary.

In most cases is not very complicated, in other it takes patience and many tries to get to the optimal result.

[kltconsulting]

Well, I'll have to do the work myself. It's for a car dealership with only about 30 users, so it's not that big of a risk. Do you know where I can find some documentation on creating a dual WAN by adding an interface card? I really appreciate your assitance with this. You've been a big help.

[paolo bevilacqua]

Read and understand one NAT configuration example, seach CCO for that, there are many.

telnet into the router, do conf term, and add one "ip nat inside source ...." statement and one default static route. This, after you configured the the new interface.

That would be all to begin using both WAN links.

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[kltconsulting]

You're the man! Thanks for the help!

[paolo bevilacqua]

You are very welcome. Please do not forget to rate useful posts using the scrollbox below!