In February 2009, a data centre in CBD Melbourne lost its power, triggering lost of ADSL connections to hundreds of thousands of Internet customers of Westnet, iiNet, Netspace, Internode, TPG, etc. in Victoria and Tasmania. The disruption of services lasted for hours. (See the Herald Sun article written by Matthew Schulz below).
Whether your connection is for work or home, the effects of any outage can range from mild inconvenience to grave consequences, like loss of time or data. For businesses that rely on Internet for their operations, loss of Internet means loss of income, staff efficiency and customer services.
It’s this kind of events that has prompted DrayTek to work on the diversification of Internet services, long before their competitors. Several of DrayTek’s routers support multiple WAN functions:
- Vigor 2110 series – Any of ADSL/Cable/Satellite connection and 3G mobile broadband
- Vigor2710 series – ADSL2/2+ connection and 3G mobile broadband
- Vigor2820 series – Dual WAN (ADSL2/2+ and any of ADSL/Cable/Satellite broadband) and 3G mobile broadband.
- Vigor2910 series – Dual WAN (any of ADSL/Cable/Satellite) and 3G mobile broadband
- Vigor2930 series – Dual WAN (any of ADSL/Cable/Satellite)
- Vigor2950 – Dual WAN (any of ADSL/Cable/Satellite)
- Vigor3300V – 4 WAN (any of ADSL/Cable/Satellite)
- VigorPro5510 – Dual WAN (any of ADSL/Cable/Satellite) and 3G mobile broadband
DrayTek’s implementation of multiple WANs covers 2 key modes:
- Load Balance: All WANs share the traffic loads. You can set WAN output ratio among the WANs. For instance, 70% of total traffic goes through WAN1 and 30% through WAN2.Furthermore, you have the flexibility to set a policy which specifies certain network applications for certain WAN. For instance, you can set all Web Surfing through WAN1, and other applications for remaining WANs.
- Failover: The backup WAN takes over when the main WAN fails, and drops back to Standby Mode when the main WAN returns.
Setting up for the multiple WAN operation is easy, thanks to DrayTek’s design of configuration pages. Below are 2 of the setup pages for Dual WAN:
Therefore, DrayTek has the solution, whether you want diversification of different ISPs or different technologies, or else you just want bigger pipes to share your work load. These solutions are easy to setup and flexible to fit in with your network requirements.
News article link: http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24996784-2862,00.html
