Peplink 20 Mechanism for Inbound

Hello I have two connections set to always on the Peplink 20.
I also have the average upload and download speeds set for each.

I understand that the Peplink 20 has NO inbound Load Balancing.

Does it perform any analysis on which connection to use when a Client Computer request a Web page or Download?
Will it pick the best connection based on the Connection Speed or the current Bandwidth of the connection.

Or is the inbound use of the two Wans first Come first serve?

Since there is no configuration for Load Balancing on the Peplink 20 what algorothim does it use for Inbound connections of both are connected and both are healthy and No Port Forwards apply?

I assume everything you’ve mentioned here is about inbound load balancing?

If you have multiple records configured, which connection to use depend on how DNS response to queries. For our product with built-in DNS server, it’s basically which link response faster (which also means best connection). For your case our router will just treat it as an inbound traffic, nothing more. If no port-forward applies then we’ll probably just drop the connection.

The Peplink Balance 20 does not have built in DNS.

Is there intelligence built in to pick the “better” connection?

How does the Peplink 20 pick between Wan 1 or Wan 2 for inbound connections.

People assume it inbound is automatically Load balanced for the Peplink 20,
but I can’t find this documented anywhere.

As mentioned, inbound connection depends on how the DNS server responses. Since it’s not hosted on Peplink, this is not something we can control.

If a user query website “http://www.testin.com”, which has 2 A records at 1.1.1.10 (WAN 1) and 2.2.2.10 (WAN 2), the one it uses depend on which records the DNS server responses to the user, with 1.1.1.10 or 2.2.2.10. On your Balance 20, what it’ll see are just connections coming in for either WAN 1 or WAN 2, so there’s no picking involved.

Inbound is not automatically load-balanced for Peplink Balance 20, just outbound.

OK this is making sense now. The query to get the webpage in a web browser
is an outbound connection and would follow the outbound rules. When the
page content is returned from the Web server it is return on the same Wan
on which the query was originally made,

So if I request a page via the outbound policy from wan 2 then the page
will be returned from the Web server on the Wan 2.

If the query is made on WAN 1 then the webpage will be returned on WAN 1.

I see what the confusion is now. :wink:

There’s 2 scenarios here.

  1. User accessing a website hosted outside Peplink aka on the Internet. This utilize Peplink outbound policy. It doesn’t necessary have to go out and come back via same WAN. Return via different WAN is possible depend on the policy you set.

  2. Internet user accessing a website hosted behind Peplink. This is where inbound load balancing comes into the picture. This depends solely on which IP address the DNS server gives the user, and they’ll come through Peplink via the specific WAN.

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Yes and I did not consider that a Peplink would be beneficial to those hosting websites. We use the Peplink for redundancy and reliability for Computers on the LAN accessing the Internet, since we do not want downtime and want to balance two live connections and obtain optimal Web Browsing Speeds from them.

It is good to know that the we can set the usage of the connections based on the Outbound Policy. This is working great and we do really like the device.

I always think of Internet as something that comes Inward to the LAN (like a download or web page) rather than Outward from the LAN (like self-hosting a site on a web server) but it is definitely initiated by an Outbound call, hence the need for outbound policy.Perhaps a suggestion could be made to Develop a simplified balancing Wizard where simpler, non-technical End User Terms are used like Surfing, Downloading and Uploading rather than Inbound and Outbound Policy Rules.

Thanks for all your help!

You’re correct there. Where a traffic is considered as inbound or outbound will be determined by where it is been initiated from.

As for the outbound policy, I assume you’re using Custom.
There’s 2 other options which is much simpler, listed below. Then again, it also depends on how far down the rabbit hole you’re willing to go and try out the features. :wink:

  1. High Application Compatibility
    When this is selected, outbound traffic from the same LAN host will be routed to the same WAN connection regardless of its destination address and protocol. This will provide the highest compatibility to applications.

  2. Normal Application Compatibility
    When this is selected, outbound traffic from the same LAN host going to the same destination IP address will be routed to the same WAN connection regardless of its protocol. This will provide high compatibility to most applications, and each user can still benefit from WAN link load balancing when they access multiple Internet servers.