Confused about balancing

I have a Balance One Core, with all 8 LAN ports used. It is my understanding that each LAN port is being balanced between the (2) WANs. The algorithm I am using is weighted balance 5:5 between each WAN.

The confusion is that I was originally told by 5GStore that if I plug a switch into, say, LAN 1 on the Balance, and then I fill up the switch with devices, the Balance Router won’t balance between the devices plugged into the switch. It only balances between what’s plugged into each LAN port on the Balance, so it would balance the entire switch against whatever was plugged into LAN 2 on the Balance. Is that how it works?

For example if the two LANs on the switch were using 5Mbps each for a total of 10Mbps for the entire switch, will the Balance One balance each of the LANs on the switch, putting LAN 1 on the switch on WAN 1 on the Balance and LAN 2 on the switch 5Mbps on WAN 2 on the balance? The same way it would if I had plugged in the devices directly into LAN 1/2 on the Balance?

Can someone clear up this confusion for me on how exactly it works?

Hi. No, that’s not correct at all. The router does not “care” how or where the WAN-bound packets arrive – from what port, whether ethernet or wi-fi, or if they originate from the earth or space. :wink: The eight LAN switch ports are there as a matter of convenience. Given the likely use case for this product this quantity of ports may obviate the need for a switch located between router and clients.

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Easiest way to think about it is LAN - Router - WAN. If it passes through through the router it gets balanced. If the traffic is LAN to LAN… no router, no balance.

As far as if the balance itself is Source based (IP Address) or session based (Destination IP)… those are various settings in the device you can muck with :slight_smile:

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Thanks to the both of you who responded. That makes so much more sense!

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