ADSL Router with ISDN fallback?

ADSL has arrived in our village, so I'm getting it installed on a POTS
line alongside the HH line that's been my main home net connection (with
surftime anytime going to Demon Premier Connect Plus giving true
unmetered - albeit at a total cost of 72 pounds a month inc. the HH line
rental - the unmetered net access on it's own is 46 pounds,
significantly more than renting a POTS line with 512K ADSL on it).

I can't risk being offline for several hours due to an ADSL outage, so
I'm keeping the HH active as a backup connection to a different ISP in
case of failure, but dropping the surftime options (which will pay for
the ADSL and give some money left over to cover dialup during ADSL
outages).

I've been looking at options for connecting, it seems as if the Draytek
2600W or 2600X is the router for the job - but that's mainly because
nothing else seems to be available. Am I missing any? Does the Draytek
fallback work OK? The ISDN part of the manual is missing from the
downloadable version on Draytek's UK web site.

FWIW, at the moment I use a Linux box running IPCOP for my
firewall/router/ISDN DoD, with a separate wireless access point - I know
I could knock something up using this box to do the ADSL/ISDN fallback
myself, but lack of time means I'd rather spend a couple of hundred quid
on a plug-in solution than spend ages hacking it together.

Any suggestions?

Matt
--
Matthew Haigh --$matthaigh{News03}$@haigh.org--
GCRSoft, providing SMS solutions since 1996...
http://www.gcrsoft.com http://www.moretext.com

On Thu, 17 Jul 2003 21:26:34 +0100, Matthew Haigh
<$matthaigh{News03}$@haigh.org> wrote:

>I've been looking at options for connecting, it seems as if the Draytek
>2600W or 2600X is the router for the job - but that's mainly because
>nothing else seems to be available. Am I missing any? Does the Draytek
>fallback work OK? The ISDN part of the manual is missing from the
>downloadable version on Draytek's UK web site.

The fallback on the Draytek does work - we have a number and have
conducted a number of tests etc. It quickly connects the ISDN when
the ADSL fails (within 10 seconds). When ADSL is back it can take up
to a minute for the ISDN to drop.

--
Hiram Hackenbacker

Why not just go for ISP that will allow 0800 dial-up if ADSL fails and save
bundle on BT line rental ?
By the way my Draytek 2200We / Plus Net ADSL hasn't missed a beat in two
months.
Regards,
Martin

In article <(E-Mail Removed)>, Hiram Hackenbacker
<(E-Mail Removed)> writes
>On Thu, 17 Jul 2003 21:26:34 +0100, Matthew Haigh
><$matthaigh{News03}$@haigh.org> wrote:
>
>>I've been looking at options for connecting, it seems as if the Draytek
>>2600W or 2600X is the router for the job - but that's mainly because
>>nothing else seems to be available. Am I missing any? Does the Draytek
>>fallback work OK? The ISDN part of the manual is missing from the
>>downloadable version on Draytek's UK web site.
>
>The fallback on the Draytek does work - we have a number and have
>conducted a number of tests etc. It quickly connects the ISDN when
>the ADSL fails (within 10 seconds). When ADSL is back it can take up
>to a minute for the ISDN to drop.
>

Thanks.

Can the ISDN fallback work dialling on demand, or if the ADSL part is
set to be always-connected does it make the ISDN always-connected too?
Obviously this has cost implications if I'm dropping the unmetered
surftime anytime. It's more important that machines at home can send
data out when they need to than have it on all the time- if the line
isn't up when I need remote access I can always dial in directly.

Matt
--
Matthew Haigh --$matthaigh{News03}$@haigh.org--
GCRSoft, providing SMS solutions since 1996...
http://www.gcrsoft.com http://www.moretext.com

In article <LmTRa.48547$(E-Mail Removed)>, Martin²
<(E-Mail Removed)> writes
>Why not just go for ISP that will allow 0800 dial-up if ADSL fails and save
>bundle on BT line rental ?

The main reason is that whilst I don't expect to need the ISDN backup
that often, if it is in place to provide peace of mind I'd rather have
it as separate as possible. What use is an 0800 into the ISP if the
failure is internal _at_ the ISP? This way if either of the phone lines
or ISPs has a problem I can still connect to the net (though I guess
I'll need manual intervention if the ADSL bit looks OK to my router, but
the ISP has died).

The peace of mind is worth a few pounds a month to me; when I need to be
on, I _need_ to be on or lose income. I'd need a second phone line
anyway (to separate fax and voice, and also allow dialup access to my
network when away), and the additional few quid for 1xHH and 1xPOTS over
2xPOTS isn't a real problem.

If the worst happens and a JCB digs up the bit of shared ground that
both my phone lines go out on, or our local BT exchange dies, I can drop
back to using a mobile connection, which gives a third level of
redundancy, but this is quite painful (and expensive) to use for any
amount of time.

Basically, I'm happy to pay a reasonable amount to make sure there is a
fallback if things go wrong, but don't want the extreme of phone lines
taking separate routes out of my property to different phone companies
etc. By going ADSL I can improve my normal access speeds, add some
redundancy and save a little bit of money a month - a win-win situation.

>By the way my Draytek 2200We / Plus Net ADSL hasn't missed a beat in two
>months.

That is good to know.

Matt
--
Matthew Haigh --$matthaigh{News03}$@haigh.org--
GCRSoft, providing SMS solutions since 1996...
http://www.gcrsoft.com http://www.moretext.com