I have Comcast cable at my house and it it very fast, but unfortunately it goes down frequently. I recently got Starlink as a back-up. For now, I plan to keep both. My questions:
Am I correct to understand that I can plug both the Starlink (via ethernet adapter) and Comcast into the Balance 20 WAN ports, set Comcast as the primary ISP, and have the Balance 20 automatically switch over to Starlink when the Comcast goes down?
My plan it to connect the output of the Balance 20 to my home router so that my home WiFi network relies on Comcast (when it’s working) and automatically switched over to Starlink when Comcast is down – so that my computer and tv and other devices can stay on the same WiFi network all the time regardless of whether Comcast or Starlink is providing the internet connection. The Balance 20 does exactly that, right?
I watched the video on the InControl 2 cloud management platform, and it looked fairly complex. I’m not a network tech/expert by any means, but can follow directions. Can a typical tech-friendly consumer get the Balance 20 set up to work as fail-over without a steep time-consuming learning curve?
Yes. Although everything has a learning curve of course. But if you need answers to questions or help with config then there are loads of us here that will do exactly that.
Kibitz:
Want a “cleaner solution?” Make the Balance router your “home router.” All Balance routers have built-in controller for Peplink’s access points. There’s an opportunity for a much “cleaner” (and simpler) typology there. (It’ll likely run faster as well.)
Thanks both. Rick-DC, would Peplink access points function like my mesh system does now? I need to cover 6k square feet with one WiFi network (i.e., not logging into to separate repeater networks as I move around).
Balance routers have built-in AP controllers. So, you can configure your APs directly from the Balance’s GUI. The config will be automatically pushed to the APs so you don’t have to interact with the latter directly. If you have a sufficient number of APs and they are situated optimally then yes, you can roam between them without having to “manually” log into each one. You can set them up as mesh but I’d recommend wiring them if at all possible – or at least as many as you can. Reason: There is a bit of a performance penalty to be paid when using mesh vice connecting the APs via ethernet. This is true of all mesh wi-fi systems, not just Peplink’s.