2.4 plus 5 = reliable Ethernet

[GTrotter]

I did a quick search and I was not able to find a lot. My partner and I live in a semi-detached home in downtown Toronto (Canada). She has DSL Internet service through Bell and I have cable Internet through Rogers. Her modem/router is a SMART/RG SR516ac and my modem/router is a Hitron CODA-4680. My purpose in using two ISPs is to achieve redundancy, so if one provider's service goes down, we will still have service through the other provider.

My partner is a hard-core technophobe. I am looking for a repeater-type device that will pick up 2.4GHz Wi-Fi from one router and 5GHz Wi-Fi from the other one, and combine both to an RJ45 Ethernet connector. I will then run a CAT5 or CAT6 cable to an Ethernet switch which will feed my partner's laptop and our Apple TV box.

I have been trying this with a TP-Link RE315, but in my limited tests, the Internet connection is lost if I switch off the RE315's connection to either of the Wi-Fi networks or reboot either of the modem/routers. You would think that the Internet connection would stay up as long as there is one good Wi-Fi signal hitting the RE315, but so far this does not appear to be the case. I have to do a lot more testing to confirm that this setup does not work the way I hoped it would.

Should I try a different repeater? I tried an ASUS RP-AC55, but it seems that this unit can only "repeat" a single Wi-Fi feed. I need something that will pick up 2.4GHz from Rogers and 5GHz from Bell and deliver the combined result through an Ethernet jack.

I will try to answer any questions and I will appreciate any advice. Thanks!

 

[ColinTaylor]

What you're suggesting will not work. You have two separate networks, one from the SR516ac and the other from the CODA-4680. Connecting both networks to the same ethernet switch is not a valid network configuration. It will not create a "combined network", but will create numerous network problems.

When you have network problems you could just manually switch from one Wi-Fi network to the other, assuming they have different SSIDs. Most operating systems allow you to automatically prioritise one Wi-Fi network over the other.

 

[coxhaus]

For load balancing you need to combine both ISPs to one router that will load balance 2 WAN connections. It really will not work well trying to combine them on the back end of 2 networks.

 

[GTrotter]

@ColinTaylor, thank you for the reply. To be clear, I am trying to connect the two networks to a TP-Link RE315 repeater, and then connect the Ethernet output of the repeater to the Ethernet switch. The TP-Link documentation doesn't say that you can feed Wi-Fi from two different routers into the RE315, but it doesn't say you can't do it either. Am I truly out of luck here? Thanks again!

 

[GTrotter]

For load balancing you need to combine both ISPs to one router that will load balance 2 WAN connections. It really will not work well trying to combine them on the back end of 2 networks.

Thank you for the reply, coxhaus. Do you have any suggestions for a router with two WAN inputs? Thanks again!

 

[Tech9]

I am looking for a repeater-type device

Cheap about CAD80 business router like ER605.

Omada Gigabit VPN Router

Omada ER605 supports Gigabit Ethernet connections on both WAN and LAN ports and multiple VPN protocols and high-security, high-performance VPN capabilities, making employees’ remote connections to their main offices as secure as if they were in the main office.

www.tp-link.com

It does Multi-WAN very well. Both Fail Over/Back and Load Balancing configurations available. One WAN to the DSL router, another WAN to the Cable router, the rest LAN ports to whatever you want with redundancy. It will run in double NAT, but get there first and come back if you have any issues with double NAT.

The router has its own GUI for what you need it for. Disregard Omada controller/network information.

 

[GTrotter]

@Tech9 thank you! The ER605 is in stock at my local Canada Computers store. The Bell router is on the third floor of our home and the Rogers router is in the basement, but I have two gadgets that will pick up Wi-Fi and output Ethernet, so this should be doable. I will be sure to report my results - thanks again!

 

[coxhaus]

@ColinTaylor, thank you for the reply. To be clear, I am trying to connect the two networks to a TP-Link RE315 repeater, and then connect the Ethernet output of the repeater to the Ethernet switch. The TP-Link documentation doesn't say that you can feed Wi-Fi from two different routers into the RE315, but it doesn't say you can't do it either. Am I truly out of luck here? Thanks again!

The problem with this is you have defined gateways that predefine your traffic flows. DSL has gateways to it and cable has gateways to itself. Gateways are used for traffic flows without them your data will never get to the right place. So, if your DSL goes down the clients have no path to a cable ISP and vice versa.

 

[ColinTaylor]

@ColinTaylor, thank you for the reply. To be clear, I am trying to connect the two networks to a TP-Link RE315 repeater, and then connect the Ethernet output of the repeater to the Ethernet switch.

Yes I understood. That won't work. The only way to combine two separate internet feeds is with dedicated hardware like that in post #6. But that would mean you then had three separate networks, your original two plus a new ethernet-only network for failover/load balancing. If you can make the physical cabling work in your environment it's a viable option for ethernet-only clients (the ER605 has no Wi-Fi).

 

[Tech9]

but I have two gadgets that will pick up Wi-Fi

I know ER605 can do Multi-WAN well, but I know nothing about your two gadgets. Can't comment on the final result. Read the ER605 User Manual for information how to configure WAN interfaces. Good luck.

 

[GTrotter]

Thank you again. It seems to be mostly plug and play, which is a good thing because the IP addresses for the Hitron router and the ER605 are the same 192.168.0.1. This makes it hard to get into the admin control panel for the ER605. I don’t know how to deal with an IP address conflict like this. Classic case of a little knowledge being dangerous.

Anyway, it is working, but I think I can make it work better with some tweaks, if I can get into the control panel. Quoting Joni Mitchell, life is for learning.

 

[drinkingbird]

Thank you again. It seems to be mostly plug and play, which is a good thing because the IP addresses for the Hitron router and the ER605 are the same 192.168.0.1. This makes it hard to get into the admin control panel for the ER605. I don’t know how to deal with an IP address conflict like this. Classic case of a little knowledge being dangerous.

Anyway, it is working, but I think I can make it work better with some tweaks, if I can get into the control panel. Quoting Joni Mitchell, life is for learning.

You can change either one to another subnet like 192.168.1.x.

 

[GTrotter]

Thank you - I changed the IP address of the ER605 to 192.168.2.1 and now I have access to the admin control panel. The tweaking will continue tomorrow. Thanks to all who helped and advised!