dual internet connections

Hello, Would be grateful for any help on the following:- Currently have small network, (2x Pc by ethernet, 1x laptop by wireless) connected to Virgin. Due to increasing unreliability, I am thinking of connecting via BT phoneline to O2 as well. My question is, assuming appropriate equipment, can I connect both to my network in such a way that changeover between the two is no more than a mouseclick (or two). Many thanks in advance.

Steve

Nope. i wouldn't advise having more than one connection for a standard home user. Especially if they are going to different ISPs. you'd need a propper Cisco load balancing router that costs about £400, plus the cost of an extra line rental and the ISP subscription. Would be increasingly difficult if you are on the virgin media cable network, ans then on the 02 network using different technologies.

just switch to a provider you feel happy with,

Yes.

You can do exactly what you want with no more than a click or seven on each computer.

And you could make it all automatic with a DrayTek 2820 router on the ADSL line.

And choosing a reliable ADSL ISP would make things so much better anyway. Zen would be my choice.

Many thanks, I have had a quick look at the Draytek, and it looks perfectly suited. No Zen available, only Be, O2, Sky and BT. Best of the bunch???

Be/O2 or Sky

zen wont be listed on the checker as its not llu but you can still order it as the connection is provided by bt - zen are ok but they are quite expensive. i assume your exchange is llu enabled for be/o2 - i would recommend o2 premium (up to 20mb), plus they will send you a half-decent router. hook it up and see what speed you get, and use it for a while and if its all ok, then switch it to be your primary broadband and keep the virgin connection as a backup. you might be able to adjust your virgin package down and lower its cost.

i was lookng into this a few months ago and doing the numbers to see if it was worth getting a cable connection installed to replace our sky tv. i would never ever use virgin as my only broadband provider, but thats just me. look at the o2 forums for ways to get o2 really cheap.

Thanks to all for the answers. Now have enough to figure things out.

Regards, Steve

In reply to a post by chipmunk:

No Zen available, only Be, O2, Sky and BT. Best of the bunch???

Don't forget, with an Easynet (Sky) LLU presence you get the option of UK Online, Sky, or Easynet all in one. I'd go for UK Online personally, been with them for years and my only gripe has been the peak time contention on IPStream. You wouldn't be affected by that on LLU.

I looked into a dual connection myself a while back, but logistically you will run into problems if you want to load balance across them. The ISP's radius would need to be configured to support this on the downstream traffic, so it knows to use both links.

If you just want another link as a backup though, it's really easy. Just get a router with two WAN interfaces, which should come with the ability to set one as the primary and one as a backup. When one goes down, traffic will route over the other. As long as the LAN facing interface is NATed and keeps the same internal IP you're sorted.

I know you can do it with Cisco's as they have interchangable WIC's (they're not hugely expensive really), but I'm sure there are some SOHO routers that'll do it too.

In reply to a post by chipmunk:

No Zen available.

Zen will be available - via BT Wholesale.

(and is still better than any of the others you suggest - and those you haven't.

In reply to a post by chipmunk:

Many thanks, I have had a quick look at the Draytek, and it looks perfectly suited. No Zen available, only Be, O2, Sky and BT. Best of the bunch???

If you can get Sky LLU, I'd go for that. Best value, but you need to be a Sky TV customer.

A tip when using the Draytek router - set it so that port 443 on all PC's goes out via the most reliable connection (that's the https port). Many banks and other places that use secure connections get nervous if you appear to be coming from two different IP addresses at once !