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techRW
join:2004-09-03

techRW

Member

RV042 - Best Way to Setup Dual Wan

I just purchased a RV042 for fail-over internet. I have two ISPs, and if one goes out, I want the other to kick in.

I'm having two issues.

The first is that when testing, if I unplug one of the internet modems the RV042 doesn't automatically switch to the new connection. I must manually goto to the System Status tab in the router admin panel and click "release" when one of the Wans fails. In system management, I've selected "Smart Link Backup:Primary WAN." So shouldn't it switch to the working Wan automatically?

Secondly, after I do manually switch the Wan port to the working Wan, I must also release/renew IP addresses on my local machine to make the internet work on my local machine again. This is because the DNS servers switch to the new ISP but my system doesn't automatically find them. Is there anyway to have this happen automatically when WAN 1 fails.

Right now, I guess I have dual Wan fail-over, but it's a completely manual process. What am I doing wrong?

jbob
Reach Out and Touch Someone
Premium Member
join:2004-04-26
Little Rock, AR
·Comcast XFINITY
Asus GT-AX6000
Asus RT-AC66U B1

jbob

Premium Member

I think what you have to do is under the System Management page you also need to check the box marked "Enable Network Service Detection" and further set the parameters offered. Set the option "When Fail:" to "Remove the Connection" You can then further set what to detect under WAN 1 and WAN 2.

Of course not fully sure what you may see. I use an RV082.
techRW
join:2004-09-03

techRW

Member

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said by jbob:

I think what you have to do is under the System Management page you also need to check the box marked "Enable Network Service Detection" and further set the parameters offered. Set the option "When Fail:" to "Remove the Connection" You can then further set what to detect under WAN 1 and WAN 2.

Of course not fully sure what you may see. I use an RV082.
I fixed problem 2 by using OpenDNS IP addresses.

I attached a screencap of my "System Management" settings.

The issue is that when I unplug the WAN1 Modem, the RV042 doesn't switch to WAN2.

If I goto the System Summary Tab and click "renew" on WAN2, it detects WAN2 and works fine (now that the DNS issue is solved). Is there something aside from "Default Gateway" that I should be selecting?

d_l
Barsoom
MVM
join:2002-12-08
Reno, NV

d_l to techRW

MVM

to techRW
I don't use Smart Link Backup, but use Load Balance on an RV082. The router does take a while to stop trying to use a disabled WAN connection. This time delay is, of course, determined by the Retry count and the Retry timeout settings.

Are you allowing enough time for the switch over? When you do a test of disabling a WAN connection, what, if anything, is reported in your router log? Maybe you might have to select "Generate the Error Condition in the System Log" to see any report.
techRW
join:2004-09-03

techRW

Member

In a test last night, I gave it 15 minutes with the setting above. Nothing was logged and it never switched over.

Since the ISP1 gateway was not truly down, is it possible that it was using ISP2 to ping the ISP1 gateway. Thus it wouldn't think ISP1 was down?

Also, when I tried to 'renew' ISP1 with the ISP1 modem unplugged, it continued to retrieve a IP address. This leads me to suspect the router isn't doing it's job. I don't know how it can be pulling an IP address for ISP1 with the ISP1 modem unplugged.

I don't pretend to be an expert though.

d_l
Barsoom
MVM
join:2002-12-08
Reno, NV

1 edit

d_l to techRW

MVM

to techRW
What are your broadband types for the two WANs? Cable gateways might be treated differently than a DSL gateway.

Whenever I do a failover test on Load Balancing, I simply power off one of my DSL modems.
techRW
join:2004-09-03

techRW

Member

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ISP1 = Cable/Dynamic IP. 10mb down/1mb up.
ISP2 = DSL/Dynamic IP. 512k down/512k up.

In the attached, is it normal for WAN2 IP to say 0.0.0.0 while WAN1 is active.

If I physically unplug the WAN1 Cat5 cable from the RV042 it switches over instantly and the switch is logged.

d_l
Barsoom
MVM
join:2002-12-08
Reno, NV

d_l to techRW

MVM

to techRW
I can't say about the 0.0.0.0, as I don't use Smart Link Backup.

I'm not familiar with cable, but is it possible that your cable modem is considered to be your gateway for network detection purposes? That would explain why you get a failover when the modem is disconnected from the router, but not when (if I understand correctly what you said) you unplug the WAN1 modem from the cable connection?

Could you change the WAN1 network detection from Default Gateway to ISP host and make it the host the first hop you see on a tracert that belongs to your ISP1? Then test the failover with that setting.
techRW
join:2004-09-03

techRW

Member

said by d_l:

Could you change the WAN1 network detection from Default Gateway to ISP host and make it the host the first hop you see on a tracert that belongs to your ISP1? Then test the failover with that setting.
Bingo! Problem solved when switching WAN1 network detection to the host IP. I'm still concerned about why it shows 0.0.0.0 for WAN2 when WAN1 is up. When WAN1 is down, it has IP addresses listed for both WAN1 and WAN2.

jbob
Reach Out and Touch Someone
Premium Member
join:2004-04-26
Little Rock, AR
·Comcast XFINITY
Asus GT-AX6000
Asus RT-AC66U B1

jbob

Premium Member

said by techRW:

said by d_l:

Could you change the WAN1 network detection from Default Gateway to ISP host and make it the host the first hop you see on a tracert that belongs to your ISP1? Then test the failover with that setting.
Bingo! Problem solved when switching WAN1 network detection to the host IP. I'm still concerned about why it shows 0.0.0.0 for WAN2 when WAN1 is up. When WAN1 is down, it has IP addresses listed for both WAN1 and WAN2.
FWIW my RV082 shows the same thing 0.0.0.0 when the backup WAN is down. I had to switch mine manually today as my cable connection went down. I go to the router and select WAN2 as primary and it then picks up the IP from my backup DSL line and the cable WAN connection shows 0.0.0.0. When I switch back it's reversed. I have to assume this is normal.