[hugh]

Well I got my TekSavvy Cable Internet service installed and working today so I now have DSL and Cable internet connections.

Prior to today, I was on the Primus Triple Value bundle which is $79.95 per month. $74.95 per month for phone, internet and LD plus $5 for 40 extra GB of bandwidth. A second VoIP.ms phone line which costs about $7 a month. Current cost then is around $81.95 a month for 65GB of bandwidth.

Going forward I am going to have:

• Primus DSL Service for $34.95 a month plus $5 a month for additional bandwidth for a total of 65 GB a month
• Teksavvy Cable for $36.95 a month currently 200GB but probably reduced to 60GB in coming months
• Two VoIP phone lines (VoIP.ms and one one other) hooked up to separate internet connections for about $20 to $25 per month.

Total cost going forward will be about $95 per month.

While I will be paying more, the benefits are redundant internet service, redundant phone service and a lot more bandwidth. The downside is no phone service in the even of a power outage, however, I have a cell phone which can also tether which I would use during that time.


Biggest issue now is making it all work!

 

[JohnnyCanuck]

What did you decide to do router-wise? Did you go dual-WAN?

If not, are you routing some appliances through one service and different through the other? Any of your hardware dual-LAN (eg. desktop PC)?

 

[hugh]

Currently, my cable connection is just feeding my laptop. I am debating the router question and really struggling on what to do. Options are a DD-WRT router (for devices such as TV and Apple TV) and a standard router or a DUAL WAN router. Not sure if the DUAL WAN will allow me to have one connection VPN and one not. I have tried to get that question answered but its unresolved.

I don't want to have a dedicated server doing load balancing so that option is out.

 

[mma2003]

Let us know if you end up using a dual-wan router. I've used a xincom twinwan router in the past, and it wasn't the best, I had issues where it didn't seem to realize one connection wasn't working, and then it slowed the internet unless it was rebooted.

 

[Wayne]

Is the VPN for appearing to be in the US or is it to allow you to have a virtual WAN?

 

[Wayne]

The downside is no phone service in the even of a power outage, however, I have a cell phone which can also tether which I would use during that time.

I bet that a <$100 UPS could keep your cable (or dsl) modem, router and VOIP adapter powered for several hours.

 

[hugh]

Wayne,

- VPN for appearing to be in the U.S.
- I have UPS on all this equipment so temporary shortages are not really a problem. Unfortunately, our area has been problematic in the last few years with about 5 power outages ranging from 30 minutes to 4 hours. Fortunately, Toronto Hydro is currently working on a two month project to upgrade electricity system in our neighbourhood

 

[AmowAgou]

Don't understand why you want to have redundant internet. How often the internet is down and you must have access to the internet at the same time? Cable internet is more stable than DSL and the downtime should be minimal. Instead of giving away your money indirectly to greedy and evil Bell, why don't you spend the money in a more meaningful way, or even buy yourself a nice lunch?

 

[hugh]

Don't understand why you want to have redundant internet.

I rely on internet and phone service for my livelihood

 

[raypundo]

Have you seen hugh's post count

 

[bucketo]

Hey Hugh,

What did you end up doing with your 2 ISPs? Have you introduced a 2nd router?

Reason I ask is I'm starting to plan the same thing. I currently have Rogers cable and want to introduce Teksavvy DSL to the mix for a higher bandwidth cap but can't leave Rogers cable just yet as I need it for my work connection.

I was thinking of going with 2 routers. The PS3, which we use for heavy netflix use, would hang off the router on DSL as it will use the most bandwidth while some of the other machines in the house will be on the other router hanging off the cable modem.

The issue I run into is I'd like PCs on router 1 to be able to see machines on router 2. Like the PS3 on router 1 could see an iMac on router 2 that has local files for streaming etc.

If it's not possible to have both routers play nice with each other I can get into the routine of flipping the PS3 manually (wireless) to router 1 for netflix and then flip over to router 2 for local streaming.

 

[hugh]

I have two routers. I considered a dual wan router (and may in the future) but the cost was a lot higher so I just bought a mid-range NetGear router which also has a traffic meter. ( I also bought a new NIC)

I have split different computers and devices to use different routers. Kind of a manual load sharing. Essentially my main computer (which uses the greatest bandwidth) and VoIP is Cable and everything else (iphone, ipad, ipods and kids computers) is DSL. This also give me a cable phone and POTS phone for redundancy.

In addition, my main computer has two NIC's in it so it can see both networks and both routers. With two mouse clicks I can disable or enable the Cable connection and the main computer will use the DSL connection.

With UBB not an issue, I'm not too worried about usage on each connection. If UBB becomes an issue in the future, the dual wan router will likely be purchased

 

[bucketo]

Cool man. I'm gonna do the same thing as you, 2 routers 1 on the DSL line, one on the cable line and split the computers across them as I need.

DSL will basically become my Netflix pipe on the PS3 for my wife while the Rogers Cable router will stick to being primarily my work machine. (we cut cable tv, so this gets used a ton)

As time moves on I'll work with my company to move off rogers cable but it's not an option today.

Signed up for DSL today, my area is Band C from what they tell me so 3-4 megs down. Goodbye $50 UBB fees from Rogers!

Thanks for the insight Hugh, this is a good 1st step for my household towards the indie ISPs.

 

[ScaryBob]

That's an interesting solution for UBB fees as well. At the current rates it can turn out to be cheaper to get a second line from an alternate provider. Note that Teksavvy offers a similar solution with MLPPP over DSL. That doesn't provide the same redundancy as cable + DSL does though.

 

[hugh]

Final note.

I have actually decided to keep my POTS line until I am satisfied with my cable connection so my costs right now are higher than originally thought but not excessively since I have the redundancy and with DSL I have unlimited bandwidth and 300GB with Teksavvy

 

[mr weather]

I have actually decided to keep my POTS line until I am satisfied with my cable connection

Probably a good decision. I barely tolerate Bell and its practices but they do offer a rock-solid landline.

 

[Esc_]

Hugh, sounds like a great setup for what you are spending. I am working on something similar myself; my bell phone alone is close to $100, another $100 for 2.4 MB adsl... yikes!

A few years ago, I had a Linksys RV042 vpn router running with bell dsl and rogers cable high speed for a redundant setup. It ran 24/7 for about 3 years. You should have no problem with your providers on this router. The router comes in 4, 8 or 16 ports, the RV042 being the 4 port model.

These routers are rock solid. The only problems I've heard of are heat related, from having the router sit on an already warm surface with poor ventilation. They run ~ @200, but well worth the money.

 

[Esc_]

edit to previous post

The following link to the RV042 admin manual explains how you can not only have a vpn session concurrently with a non vpn session. You can set up up to 30 applications to access certain ports for their vpn session. Non vpn sessions will just run on their own as usual.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/routers/csbr/rv042/admin/guide/RV042_V10_UG_C-WEB.pdf (see page 22)

Hope this helps.