internet connection redundancy

I was wondering if anybody had like a best practice method
for having 2 internet services, as redundancy, in a
windows 2003 server network. Would it be necesary to have
2 NICs in server box or special router with double WAN
connection.

If anybody has any idea about this, I woudl really
appreciate it

It depends on what sort of internet connection you have. I you are using
leased lines, then you would need a router.
Lets say you have a leased line and want to back it up with a dialup
connection. You generaly have to have a router in oreder to connect it to
your network, and if you don't already have one, it might be a good idea to
get a router that have a built in backup interface(i dont thing they are
that much more expensive, if you do already have a router, you could
consider writeing a script that checks internet connectivity every 5 minutes
or so, and if there is none, it must initiate a dialup connection. Let us
know exactly what sort of connectivity you are looking at and it will be
easier to make suggestions.

--
Steven Cooke


"Mike" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:20db101c45a6c$948ddf30$(E-Mail Removed)...
> I was wondering if anybody had like a best practice method
> for having 2 internet services, as redundancy, in a
> windows 2003 server network. Would it be necesary to have
> 2 NICs in server box or special router with double WAN
> connection.
>
> If anybody has any idea about this, I woudl really
> appreciate it
>
>

I was just wondering just to have the knowledge if I ever
needed to have an internet redundancy system, since
nowadays everybody goes crazy when internet is down.
I was actually thinking about having a Cable Modem and DSL
as Back UP or a T1 with Cable Modem as Back Up.
Some years ago we used to just switch the patch cord from
one service to the other in case of a problem, but it
would be good to know the professional way of doing it. i
did not know that routers with WAN redundancy existed, I
was just guessing, and was thinking of having a windows
server as a internet gateway with 3 NICs 1 for each
internet service and 1 for LAN eliminating the router.
(this would be for Smal Businesses that do not have STATIC
IPs, I already found out the process if you had Static IPs
with ARIN)
Thanks a lot for your help
>-----Original Message-----
>It depends on what sort of internet connection you have.
I you are using
>leased lines, then you would need a router.
>Lets say you have a leased line and want to back it up
with a dialup
>connection. You generaly have to have a router in oreder
to connect it to
>your network, and if you don't already have one, it might
be a good idea to
>get a router that have a built in backup interface(i dont
thing they are
>that much more expensive, if you do already have a
router, you could
>consider writeing a script that checks internet
connectivity every 5 minutes
>or so, and if there is none, it must initiate a dialup
connection. Let us
>know exactly what sort of connectivity you are looking at
and it will be
>easier to make suggestions.
>
>--
>Steven Cooke
>
>
>"Mike" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>news:20db101c45a6c$948ddf30$(E-Mail Removed)...
>> I was wondering if anybody had like a best practice
method
>> for having 2 internet services, as redundancy, in a
>> windows 2003 server network. Would it be necesary to
have
>> 2 NICs in server box or special router with double WAN
>> connection.
>>
>> If anybody has any idea about this, I woudl really
>> appreciate it
>>
>>
>
>
>.
>

"Mike" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:21c5401c45add$d20965c0$(E-Mail Removed)...
> was just guessing, and was thinking of having a windows
> server as a internet gateway with 3 NICs 1 for each
> internet service and 1 for LAN eliminating the router.

That would not work,...."dead gateway" detection can let it switch to the
other "gateway" but it will *not* switch back on it's orginal gateway after
the main line came back up. It would use only two nics and I believe both
gateways would have to be the same subnet. I have not ever set one of these
up (probably never will) so I don't know all the little gory details of it.

The most similar way that correspondes to what you want is to rig up a pair
of Proxy Servers (one on each line) as an "array". The "proxy array" would
appear to the users as one single proxy,....if one fails, the other keep
going. However this would cause both links to always be used and you
wouldn't control which line was used for any given users and any given time.


--

Phillip Windell [MCP, MVP, CCNA]
www.wandtv.com

I agree with Phillip. However, there are some relatively inexpensive
Cable/DSL routers that have failover capability - See:

http://www.linksys.com/products/prod...id=29&prid=589

Doug Sherman
MCSE Win2k/NT4.0, MCSA, MCP+I, MVP

"Phillip Windell" <@.> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> "Mike" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:21c5401c45add$d20965c0$(E-Mail Removed)...
> > was just guessing, and was thinking of having a windows
> > server as a internet gateway with 3 NICs 1 for each
> > internet service and 1 for LAN eliminating the router.
>
> That would not work,...."dead gateway" detection can let it switch to the
> other "gateway" but it will *not* switch back on it's orginal gateway
after
> the main line came back up. It would use only two nics and I believe both
> gateways would have to be the same subnet. I have not ever set one of
these
> up (probably never will) so I don't know all the little gory details of
it.
>
> The most similar way that correspondes to what you want is to rig up a
pair
> of Proxy Servers (one on each line) as an "array". The "proxy array" would
> appear to the users as one single proxy,....if one fails, the other keep
> going. However this would cause both links to always be used and you
> wouldn't control which line was used for any given users and any given
time.
>
>
> --
>
> Phillip Windell [MCP, MVP, CCNA]
> www.wandtv.com
>
>

I'm currently toying with using my back-up dial account that comes with my
DSL for redundancy. It's working well, but the only phone line I have also
carries voice and the dang modem keeps answering the phone.

I've got my headless server set up with 2 nics and a modem. Use RRAS and
set-up a broadband connection on a nic and a demand-dial connection on the
modem.

The trick is setting up the routing. Look at your routing table and set the
metric for the demand-dial connection to a higher value than the broadband
connection. When there are two routes to the same network, RRAS will try the
interface with the lowest metric first. This should be a sufficeint method
for achieving redundancy.

If a person or fax needs to answer the phone, you'll have problems. Are you
having down-time issues?

Well actually I was not thinking in using Dial-up, I was
thinking in Cable and DSL, just for the sake of redundancy
in internet critical availability enviroment. Typical
Must ahve internet or I am loosing money.
It seems the best would be a double WAN port router

Thanks

>-----Original Message-----
>I'm currently toying with using my back-up dial account
that comes with my
>DSL for redundancy. It's working well, but the only phone
line I have also
>carries voice and the dang modem keeps answering the
phone.
>
>I've got my headless server set up with 2 nics and a
modem. Use RRAS and
>set-up a broadband connection on a nic and a demand-dial
connection on the
>modem.
>
>The trick is setting up the routing. Look at your routing
table and set the
>metric for the demand-dial connection to a higher value
than the broadband
>connection. When there are two routes to the same
network, RRAS will try the
>interface with the lowest metric first. This should be a
sufficeint method
>for achieving redundancy.
>
>If a person or fax needs to answer the phone, you'll have
problems. Are you
>having down-time issues?
>
>
>.
>

Definitely It seems to be the best option, thanks a lot
both of you

>-----Original Message-----
>I agree with Phillip. However, there are some relatively
inexpensive
>Cable/DSL routers that have failover capability - See:
>
>http://www.linksys.com/products/product.asp?
grid=34&scid=29&prid=589
>
>Doug Sherman
>MCSE Win2k/NT4.0, MCSA, MCP+I, MVP
>
>"Phillip Windell" <@.> wrote in message
>news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> "Mike" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> news:21c5401c45add$d20965c0$(E-Mail Removed)...
>> > was just guessing, and was thinking of having a
windows
>> > server as a internet gateway with 3 NICs 1 for each
>> > internet service and 1 for LAN eliminating the router.
>>
>> That would not work,...."dead gateway" detection can
let it switch to the
>> other "gateway" but it will *not* switch back on it's
orginal gateway
>after
>> the main line came back up. It would use only two nics
and I believe both
>> gateways would have to be the same subnet. I have not
ever set one of
>these
>> up (probably never will) so I don't know all the little
gory details of
>it.
>>
>> The most similar way that correspondes to what you want
is to rig up a
>pair
>> of Proxy Servers (one on each line) as an "array".
The "proxy array" would
>> appear to the users as one single proxy,....if one
fails, the other keep
>> going. However this would cause both links to always be
used and you
>> wouldn't control which line was used for any given
users and any given
>time.
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>> Phillip Windell [MCP, MVP, CCNA]
>> www.wandtv.com
>>
>>
>
>
>.
>

I explained redundancy for outgoing connections, but I suppose you're
referring to redundancy for incoming connections. I'm not sure if that's
possible. Round robin DNS could help a little. I think the answer would be
in some sort of DNS set up.

How do those do that? Do they just have two WAN interfaces where you plug
two phonelines or TV Cables into them?

--

Phillip Windell [MCP, MVP, CCNA]
www.wandtv.com

"Doug Sherman [MVP]" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:%(E-Mail Removed)...
> I agree with Phillip. However, there are some relatively inexpensive
> Cable/DSL routers that have failover capability - See:
>
> http://www.linksys.com/products/prod...id=29&prid=589
>
> Doug Sherman
> MCSE Win2k/NT4.0, MCSA, MCP+I, MVP
>
> "Phillip Windell" <@.> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> > "Mike" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> > news:21c5401c45add$d20965c0$(E-Mail Removed)...
> > > was just guessing, and was thinking of having a windows
> > > server as a internet gateway with 3 NICs 1 for each
> > > internet service and 1 for LAN eliminating the router.
> >
> > That would not work,...."dead gateway" detection can let it switch to
the
> > other "gateway" but it will *not* switch back on it's orginal gateway
> after
> > the main line came back up. It would use only two nics and I believe
both
> > gateways would have to be the same subnet. I have not ever set one of
> these
> > up (probably never will) so I don't know all the little gory details of
> it.
> >
> > The most similar way that correspondes to what you want is to rig up a
> pair
> > of Proxy Servers (one on each line) as an "array". The "proxy array"
would
> > appear to the users as one single proxy,....if one fails, the other keep
> > going. However this would cause both links to always be used and you
> > wouldn't control which line was used for any given users and any given
> time.
> >
> >
> > --
> >
> > Phillip Windell [MCP, MVP, CCNA]
> > www.wandtv.com
> >
> >
>
>