Combining Wan Connections and adding a repeater in the process

Question

Ok this is a long one so here goes

1. Currently I have TelOne ADSL working with NAT from the isp side so no public ip,  ZOL Wimax also working with NAT from the isp side so no public ip again, Econet Wimax also working with NAT once again no public IP and finally Iway Africa Wimax with a public IP Address.  The devices are the standard Huawei adsl modem, Linksys E900 modem, Econet IX-256 modem and Trendnet 731-br modem respectively.

My first challenge is this at any given time i can have as little as two connections up and running and switching between SSID's is becoming a hastle, I have certain services that require an active connection especially at night so i do not want to wake up every 20 minutes to check if the link i am connected to is active.  Having done some research I found that using DDRT custom firmware on the E900 and the 731BR i can turn the lan ports into wan ports by redifining the interfaces.  Has anyone tried this and if yes what was the level of success.

Second challenge the signal is weak in a particular area and as such I wanted to know if I can use a second IX-256 modem as a repeater.  Once again if anyone knows how I would appreciate the information.

Some key things here to note, I do not want to setup a linux box with 4 LAN cards and then do the whole round robin / fail over etc config.  Two if possible i do not want to purchase additional equipment.

 

Thanks

Comments

not judging or sounding negative here but if you can afford to run 4 internet connections why cant you spend a little money on the right hardware to solve the balancing/failover solution?

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Good question employee benefits.

Answer 1

As others have spoke, i also suggest u either buy the equipment to do your load balancing be it PC or Router. I've had success in load balancing with 2* Econet 3g modem and one Powertel using a Mikrotik Router. Have never tried the DDWRT option.

As for the "Second challenge" i don't quite get what u mean by "signal is weak"??

Answer 2

Have you considered buying a wan load balancer? It will save you a lot of hussles and you can get good ones under $100

Comments

yes i considered a load balancer but... as initially stated i didnt want to purchase additional equipment as i already have two compatible routers for custom firmware. and even if i was to go the route you suggest, i would need to then find a source in zim not easy to get a 4 wan device here eg tp links TL-r470t

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Ook! On that case then l personally havent done it bt l still believe buying a already made hardware specialising in what you want will save you a lot of downtime and headache.

Answer 3

Assuming your power is ok

Get an old Intel PC that you have spare that has enough space for network cards for all your wan's and a LAN connection

Then download pfsense for free from pfsense.org and set that up

Pfsense is a FreeBSD based firewall distribution and is very flexible and has wan load balancing and wan failover support and is nearly all configured via web interface

I use to use it for this exact reason however now it's just a plain firewall for zol fibre

You'll probably find that finding old PC hardware and network cards is a lot cheaper than bespoke equipment for the same job

for the second challenge you might have to define your setup a bit including a bit of info about your site setup( size etc) - depending on the size/range you might have to use some AP's that will work as WDS repeaters, or for larger ranges a couple of PointToPoint wireless recievers, one at each end and create your own micro wimax setup

Comments

I am going to look into this method.  Someone had pointed me in the direction of endian firewall so I am going to look at both and once done will feedback.

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i looked at both originally - nothing matched the power of pfsense and its flexibility - also pfsense forum is very busy and well supported