Drop-in Mode with Management IP

Product Discussion Feature Requests
1

Hi Guys,

I have this setup, and I’m sure that in my country, most setup will be like this, although there are other workarounds a feature to the support this would be best.

Here’s the setup:

Original Setup:
ISP-----> Firewall ----> LAN

Setup with Peplink:
ISP —> Peplink (Drop-in) –> Firewall (IP unchanged) –> LAN

The problem is, the ISP here normally provide 1 Static Public IP only, which is in the original setup assigned to the Firewall’s WAN interface.
The Drop-in feature’s main purpose is to allow peplink to be added to the network without changing the existing network but if I add peplink in the picture, Peplink Requires another Public IP assigned to it’s LAN interface, but in this case, there’s no more Public IP available.

Workaround:

  1. Reconfigure the Firewall to place it in a private network and, disable Drop-in in Peplink, and allow Peplink to do the NATings required.

OR

  1. Request a bigger IP block from the ISP $$$$

OR we can do as follows:

So here’s my suggestion:

  1. In Drop in Mode, make the box truly transparent for the Public IP Subnet
  2. Allow user to use one of the LAN ports on Peplink as “Management LAN” i guess a VLAN might be necessary. This is so that in transparent mode, the peplink can still be reachable but from a different private subnet.
  3. OR, in Drop-in mode, don’t Make the LAN IP mandatory but make the WAN2/WAN3 IP address Mandatory instead, so if the box is in L2 Mode, it’ll still be reachable from WAN2/WAN3 either directly or over the WAN/Internet.

I hope this makes sense to you guys.

Thanks. Hope to hear your response soon.

2

Hello lukmanibrahim,

Thank you for your suggestions on changes to the Balance’s Drop In mode functionality. Our Engineering Team is constantly looking for ways to improve the Balance and customer suggestions are one of the main ways to see what is wanted/needed.

The team will take this to heart and see feasibility. If these are changes that can be done, we will make sure to make an announcement in our development roadmap.