General Questions

Hi! Is it possible to use m0n0wal on a machine with 3 network cards,
2 of which will be used as WAN ports to accept internet from 2 different ISP's,
and the 3rd one for distribution of those internet connections to LAN with about 10 workstations.

(if it is possible after all, is there also a some kind of load balancing mechanism?)


I am looking to achieve that at any time, any of the 2ISP's connections I have, is available to the workstations through the m0n0wal machine,

so that when either ISP's connections is down, the workstations' requests for internet will be sent to the other through the m0n0wal machine (unless both connections are down of course).


I currently have 2 simple D-Link DIR100 routers accepting different ISP's connections. I am switching the cable manually to the other then there's no Internet on the first one.

I've tried connecting them both but there is no reliability when the set up is in this manner:

1. both routers in the same LAN subnet: 1st router's LAN - 192.168.0.1, 2nd router's LAN - 192.168.0.2 (added 192.168.0.2 as additional default gateway on workstations),

or

2. each router having its own different LAN subnet: 1st router's LAN - 192.168.0.1; 2nd router's LAN192.168.1.1 (added 192.168.1.1 as additional default gateway, and 192.168.1.xxx as additional IP on workstations, for them to acces the 2nd router's LAN),

and then

sending unlimited number of pings to distant locations through the 1st router, disconnecting wan on the 1st router, checking whether ping would automatically be redirected through the 2nd router.

It actually works, it takes some time for the redirection to take place (up to 10 seconds) - I can live with that, however:
the redirected connection is not stable - it may be up for some time, go down for a short while, and them be up again, and then go down for a longer period or for good. and when the redirection takes place the 2nd router has active sessions from
192.168.0.101
and
192.168.1.101
which is the same workstation (the one on which the test is run), with a 192.168.0.101 primary IP and 192.168.1.101 additional IP defined (although its not clear how the router in 192.168.1.x LAN receives a session from 192.168.0.x node, but then again the routing table on the workstation in question showed only 192.168.0.101 as interface on all routes).

I'd b gratefull If someone could explain the underlying logic in such a setup,
is such a setup possible,
and if its not,
weather it will be possible to bring 2ISP's in one LAN subnet if I use a m0n0wal on a machine with 3 network cards, as described at the beginning of this post.
Tank you.

for multiple WAN and load balancing checkout pfsense.org

Roy...

I've found a way to connect two different ISP through m0n0wall, but there is no load balancing. Just the ability to switch the ISP on the fly via static routes.

Basically, m0n0wall uses it's WAN for one ISP, then uses an extra LAN interface to IPS2 in which a simple router is setup to accept connections.

You use static routes to direct where people connect to. Build two static routes that cover the 0.0.0.0/1 and 128.0.0.0/1 ranges, turn them on and off as you want to direct people either through m0n0wall or through the gateway on the other ISP through the second LAN2 connection.

That's the most you can do which is more of hack than a graceful solution. It only really works as a way to get backup Internet.