Failover switch

Trasna1

I have an issue with my wireless link to a second property, some 500m away from my house. Recently the connection between the two houses has been dropping out - due to an alignment issue. Now that is something I know I need to get sorted, but I now have mission critical monitoring equipment in this second property so I clearly need a back up connection. Bitrate required if triggered is low and hasn't been needed to date apart from during monthly testing.

From other projects, I already have a hspa+ router, so what I need is a switch that will fail over to the 3.5g router when/if the connection drops. Ideally the router would ordinarily essentially be a pass through as I don't want it in another network. In other words, it doesn't act as a DHCP, just a dumb switch that can detect if Google is accessible on port 1 and if not, switch to Port 2 for outgoing connections.

Anyone know of anything that can do that?

Lucifer

How about a second wireless link like ubiquiti and managed switches at each end that support trunking?

something like this

https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/679811-wireless-bridge-redundancy-options

what is your current wireless link?

Is your reason for the redundancy to keep the local network intact between the two properties or to keep an internet connection in the second property?

Trasna1

Lucifer wrote: »

How about a second wireless link like ubiquiti and managed switches at each end that support trunking?

something like this

https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/679811-wireless-bridge-redundancy-options

what is your current wireless link?

Is your reason for the redundancy to keep the local network intact between the two properties or to keep an internet connection in the second property?

The requirement for redundancy in the second property is just to keep an internet connection alive. Don't care if the LAN stays intact, just that a connection is available.

Id rather not put up a second wireless link, I'm using TP Link nanostations and have been very good up to date until one went out of alignment and LoS was partially obscured by a tree. The tree is coming down at the weekend and the antenna will be realigned too.

Originally the set was to provide a simple internet connection in the second property, but now a emergency alarm has been added and that needs near 5 nines uptime. I know when I get the nanostations sorted things will be fine generally but just worried the one time the alarm will be activated will be when the antenna has shifted in the wind.

I'm thinking something like a business gateway is what's needed in property two?

emaherx

Trasna1 wrote: »

The requirement for redundancy in the second property is just to keep an internet connection alive. Don't care if the LAN stays intact, just that a connection is available.

Id rather not put up a second wireless link, I'm using TP Link nanostations and have been very good up to date until one went out of alignment and LoS was partially obscured by a tree. The tree is coming down at the weekend and the antenna will be realigned too.

Originally the set was to provide a simple internet connection in the second property, but now a emergency alarm has been added and that needs near 5 nines uptime. I know when I get the nanostations sorted things will be fine generally but just worried the one time the alarm will be activated will be when the antenna has shifted in the wind.

I'm thinking something like a business gateway is what's needed in property two?

I've used PC Engines Alix for this in the past. The only thing is it comes with no software. Zeroshell is the OS I used and has the capability you want. There are other OS's also.

Trasna1

emaherx wrote: »

I've used PC Engines Alix for this in the past. The only thing is it comes with no software. Zeroshell is the OS I used and has the capability you want. There are other OS's also.

Thanks, I hadn't thought of this. I was just thinking there was a product/box that might do it. I actually have a spare openwrt and and a ddwrt router that apparently can be programmed like zeroshell to do this.

You have inspired my solution, thanks. Even better that I don't have to buy anything!

ED E

PFSense box at the secondary site would be my go to, and SMS alerts upon loss of link.

MrMusician18

I had a similar issue as the OP, needing a backup connection for VOIP to a remote site that got it main internet connection through nano stations to the main site. Occasionally I had noticed the beam between the two sites would get obstructed causing the link to go down. As preserving the LAN was not important, just maintaining internet connectivity for the VOIP phone at the remote site I looked into dual wan routers. Initially I had hoped to use some spare openwrt or ddwrt routers I had lying around but the various flavors I was able to install on these did not have all the features required. Doing further reading, I concluded the set up of this was beyond my ability anyway and started to look for an of the shelf solution.

I then came upon a TP link tl r470+ dual wan router, off eBay for €12. Setting this up proved a little more difficult than anticipated but once I had the port forwarding sorted (VoIP doesn't like double nat), its worked well. Transition on failure is almost seamless, just taking a moment for the backup 3g modem to come to life.

If anyone is going to use this product, be aware that there are 6 versions of the hardware, with V.1 not supporting failover, and the feature set of the router gets better as the version number increases. Amazon is still selling old versions, so just be aware of that.