Interested in buying a Peplink Balance 30 for a planned DSL/Sat/4G configuration.
DSL modem is in my server room beside where the peplink would be going.
However, both the Satellite and 4G modems would be put in the attic.
There’s two RJ45 ports connected with CAT6 back to the server room on the ground floor which would be fine but for the fact I have a network-connected security camera PVR using one of the ethernet ports already.
All cables run back to a CAT6 patch panel, then a Netgear 24 port gigabit switch.
From what I can tell I’d need to be running the ethernet cable directly from the Satellite and 4g modems in the attic into each of their own ethernet ports and then patching those directly into the Balance. This would suggest I have to disconnect the PVR in attic to free up one of the ports.
Is it possibly I could put, for example the PVR + 4g on a switch which uses one port, then the Satellite modem on the other switch?
Right now I’m thinking that I need to maybe use an alternative to the CAT 6 for the PVR, such as powerline ethernet (sockets available in attic) or a small wireless router.
Hey Jared,
I might be able to simplify my question. Instead of each ISP having a dedicated WAN port, is it possibly to use a switch into which both ISP WAN links go, use a single physical connection from a Balance WAN port to that switch, and still have the balance software see that the single WAN port is serving multiple WANs?
I’m pretty sure it’s wishful thinking on my part.
If I’m still not clear, I’ll certainly provide a network diagram.
Yes each internet connection will need to be connected via the applicable WAN Ports on the Balance. If you are able to provide a network diagram we can certainly provide recommendations for best setup.
Here’s what I suspect is required if I introduce the Balance 30 and two additional WANs. Note the attic DVR is now using an ethernet adaptor to act as a client of the upstairs router instead of using the CAT6 port in the attic.
So my original question was wondering whether I could somehow multiplex the the 3 devices in the attic (dongle, satellite modem, dvr) over the 2 CAT 6 cables and still have the 2 WANs working via the balance AND the DVR working as it currently does.
Since my original post I’ve looked into alternative connectivity for the DVR, so as to free up both RJ45 ports for the individual WAN connections.
Another question I have is what’s recommended as regards the primary DHCP server? I currently have 3 devices that can act as DHCP servers in the network (Both wireless routers and the DSL modem). If I introduce the Balance, that will be yet another device. In my mind, I want to minimize the non-internet-bound traffic that’s passing through the Balance. The two wireless routers on the LAN side are pretty high spec (Netgear R6300, ASUS RT-AC68U).
If your switch is managed you could vlan each wan, or you can switch off the dhcp on the gateways and put them on the same lan with different ip address. When you define the WAN1 you should write that the default gw is the ip of the gateway of isp1 and on the Wan2 use the ip of the other gateway.
The raspberry (neat stuff) should go away to free one WAN ( or buy B30 ). The peplink has a usb port that works great, but in the attic for good reception, not in a basement.
Regarding the DHCP server, if your wireless router is Nat-ing, there no problem with dhcp inside the Lan of Wireless Router, but if its on Bridge AP the must not be offer dhcp leases.
To force the load balancing of Balance remember to set the dhcp default gateway as the Ip address of the peplink LAN. Not the IP of wireless routers.
