Second Gateway same internal network, possible?

[bjitima]

Hello,

We have a cable modem that we use for our internet. We also have a small partial T1 that is in as a backup. Lately we have been having a lot of problems with the cable modem. We set up a second firewall on the T1 in the exact same way as the first, except it has a different address on the inside and outside.

Cable - 192.168.4.1
T1 - 192.168.4.4

We configured a Windows workstation at 192.168.4.100 with both gateways. When we unplug the cable, the computers do not automatically switch to the second gateway.

I have not been able to find anyone who has successfully had this working, although I'm not sure what use it has if it does not work in that way.

I know it could be done by putting in a router in addition to the existing equipment, but we are trying to avoid spending a couple thousand dollars on a new Cisco router.

Does anyone have experience actually getting multiple gateways and metrics statically assigned to work automatically without any kind of rebooting / user intervention?

Thanks,

Ben Jitima
ben@foodfairmarkets.com

 

[mrdenny]

It needs to be done at the router level.

Linksys offers a router that has two uplink ports for two seperate networks. It offers load ballancing or quality of service settings on it. It's like $150. For a small office it should do the trick. It presents a single IP to the LAN for the gateway address and internially figures out which WAN port to send the data over.

Denny
MCSA (2003) / MCDBA (SQL 2000) / MCTS (SQL 2005) / MCITP Database Administrator (SQL 2005)

--Anything is possible. All it takes is a little research. (Me)

http://www.mrdenny.com

 

[bjitima]

If we are going to do it at the router level, we will probably end up buying a middle of the road Cisco router to do so.

However, we are running 16 PIX to PIX VPN tunnels and configuring them to work through a router is quite a bit more complicated than having the workstations able to switch back and forth between two gateways...which is why we were trying it that way before committing to purchasing a router.

But like I said, we will most likely buy a router in the end.