Two companies operating within the same network.
Two companies operating within the same network.
I had had a satellite provider for internet for awhile now and it sucks balls. The local DSL provider... and the only even remotely competitively priced option in the area, just did some updating and has 54 new aDSL ports in the area and can get me a whole WHOPPING 18M service!!! Woohoo! Pfftthhh.But that beats the crap out of the (guaranteed)25M that actually works out to be about 1.5M most of the time. I am stuck in a contract (or pay $800 fee for early termination) for 7 more months so am keeping it for now AND getting on the aDSL train while the ports are hot (and sooner than later to be upgraded to local fiber). Here is the magical question... CAN I plug both providers into my home network and utilize that bandwidth together for now? I understand that I could go buy a stupidly expensive enterprise grade router that does some sort of bonding (or maybe not) but that isn't an option ATM. I don't care about getting more speed out of them, just gonna be paying for both and I would like to at least use them both to some degree. I know... what's the point? Correct me if I am wrong, as I often am, in that I can put them both on seperate subnets... 192.168.0.1 and 192.168.1.1 and assign appropriate IP's to things to point them at specific gateways but still access them on the same network by address? So, my desktop (addressed as 0.100) connected to 0.1 with fast(er) internet and still SSH in to my RPi MQTT server (addresed as 1.100) on the 1.1 net by calling for that specific address? I m a little foggy on the whole subnet jazz. As long as the device is pointed at it's assigned gateway for internet, it should stick with that, correct? Oh yeah, and BTdubs as well, I have wired the crap out of my entire property, am running Ubiquitti mesh routers (but not a gateway) and I have a dedicated PfSense box in the mix...that is currently bypassed because I did some seriously gnarly changes in configuration to it and bricked my internet access and will need to totally reinstall the OS to fix it. I know plenty enough to create a monster but not enough to keep it from eating me. Go figure. The idea is to put my home automation stuff on the same subnet which uses the satellite snail-trail-to-the-internet connection for it's updates and what not and point all the rest of the gear... desktops, laptops, smart TV, etc, on the aDSL line for streaming and access to the NAS and the other crap on the network.. It is my understanding I can't selectively tell a device which IP to use for each task/app... it just uses what it has as a gateway. Like I want you to use slow-net for your updates and fast net for Netflix... Or am I just out in left field and I should just shut the satellite modem off and toss it in a closet for 7 months and forget I ever made THAT fated mistake?
You can combine networks for faster performance, as did Linus many years back. However, if one connection is significantly slower than the other—even with improved speeds—the ping will remain poor because of the weaker network. It’s better to use each network independently since both are slow and unreliable.
That’s what I thought too. So... I should divide my systems and assign each a specific gateway to use the provider I think best suits them. I can still reach those devices via their IP addresses, even if they’re on separate subnets, right? It’s really confusing to ask such a question!
What router are you using? Just get a dual WAN router and let it manage everything. All your devices can stay on one subnet, and traffic can be routed between ISPs as needed. You can implement failover, round-robin, split across hosts or services.
I own the satellite modem/router provided by the service and several Ubiquiti APs for mesh Wi-Fi. The satellite router handles DHCP and everything else stays on static IPs. I don’t have any managed devices. My PfSense unit has four NIC ports, and I’m curious if I can set it up to route both providers’ WAN through it once the OS is restored. That would be great if possible.
PFSense handles it perfectly. Just configure the two virtual interfaces and then create a load balancer group.
The satellite delay increases unexpectedly when the connection slows down. This issue made it difficult to rely on 4G as a backup and complicated managing the switch between 4G and DSL. Sometimes latency reached 2000ms, triggering pfSense to report the gateway as down, but once the connection was free, latency returned to normal, causing the system to reset itself. This pattern happened repeatedly, leading to frequent connectivity loss and forcing me to abandon 4G entirely. While not certain to occur everywhere, it’s a concern during testing, especially when DSL lines appear stable but speed varies. Switching to dual-DSL lines helped because speeds remained consistent, allowing better balance. It’s worth trying, but be aware of these possible challenges.
I've been thinking about this scenario. It seems unlikely to link a 1.5m connection with a 600 ms latency to an 18m distance using just 4 ms ping. Integrating the shorter segment doesn't seem to add much benefit, especially when performance is already good. The high latency makes that connection essentially useless.