We got a comcast bus line and a verizon t1 (well, not really t1, but they call it that and it is that speed).
We are not adding any if possible. The location sucks and the options are not great.
The t1 is our primary line. Desktop surfing goes out over it, and email comes in over it. We have a web email interface over ssl, and a couple of remote pc connections, but low corporate traffic for the most part.
The comcast line is the random secondary line, but it is not integrated with the network, and if you can surf the comcast line, you can't get to the rest of it, it requires a patch panel swap. And once you are on that side, you are on the "outside".
The verizon t1 goes out in the rain.
It usually is back up the next day, and the corporate direction was to ignore it since the business impact was minimal.
Verizon has been on strike. Our t1 has been down for about 5 days now. Inbound mail is caught at a vendor web service, stored on the cloud, and picked up via browser for the few people who require it.
Our website is hosted "out there", but it is integrated for configurations and order receipt with our internal systems, so that's broken for now.
I have short term and long term goals, and the short term might be discarded depending on how soon Verizon is back to work, which means I need some odds on strike resolution possibility to make a decision. GFL. Sigh.
Ok, back to tech.
I want to be able to use both the t1 and the cable lines. I want to load balance, round robin fashion. I want to do it via some type of supported device (years ago I hand configured this stuff under OpenBSD).
I know I will NOT get any speed increases, and the speeds will be dramatically different depending on your traffic type. Inbound traffic over the comcast line is 10 times faster than the t1. But outbound traffic (and we have webcasts that send slide shows and audio streams) will be much slower on the comcast line, and if we do any real comcast uploading, the download speed will tank because uploads affects downloads.
So configurability is important.
I assume (but am not sure) incoming email connections will be driven by multiple MX records. Once the email hits the device (coming in from either connection) it should then bounce the packets to the server in the same way it does now. Is there anything else I need to think about on that side?
Ok, I got a hardware budget of $1,300 (not really, but I tossed the number around it will probably be accepted).
I got that number from this device:
Peplink 210:
http://www.peplink.c...-spec/#comparison
I do NOT get my user/groups bandwidth control, though, until I go up to the 310, along with some other functionality. Something tells me I need another $700. Man, it's tough dealing with small business where every dollar counts. But if I do this in my own BSD box, the inhouse guy will never be able to support it, and I need to be able to hand off and walk away for the next project.
I'm not stuck on this device. Are there any others you recommend in the price range?
Thanks