Load balance/Aggregate ISP gigabit?

X-Gamer

X-Gamer

Disciple
Hi,

I have two ISP connections (jio 50up/down | local fiber 150up/down). Currently I'm using a ethernet switcher (2 lan in 1 out to pc) to switch between these two connections if there is any issue on one of them. I am looking for a affordable (sub 3k) switch that offers load balancing or aggregation, any recommendations?
 
I use TPLink ER605 but I got that from Amazon for nearly 7k. Available for less maybe under 6k if you can source it locally.

Pretty good device overall.

I don't know of any other device in 3k range.
 
Not sure about the website but price 4k seems good, hopefully not too good to be true.

Overall experience has been very good, it appears to be stable, easy to configure.

I put my 2 ftth connection in load balancing mode (aggregator) and it automatically also acts like failover if one link goes down.

In fact I actually have Airtel 4g CPE device which I can put in backup mode if both the ftth connection fail.

Note that you will only get the benefits of aggregate if your app is using multiple connection to download like speedtest, fast.com or torrent but other apps or even operating system update use single connection and you can configure the tplink to give preference to your faster link.

Let me know if you have any specific questions and I'll try to answer.
 
vishalrao said:
Not sure about the website but price 4k seems good, hopefully not too good to be true.

Overall experience has been very good, it appears to be stable, easy to configure.

I put my 2 ftth connection in load balancing mode (aggregator) and it automatically also acts like failover if one link goes down.

In fact I actually have Airtel 4g CPE device which I can put in backup mode if both the ftth connection fail.

Note that you will only get the benefits of aggregate if your app is using multiple connection to download like speedtest, fast.com or torrent but other apps or even operating system update use single connection and you can configure the tplink to give preference to your faster link.

Let me know if you have any specific questions and I'll try to answer.
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great, thanks!
skoka123 said:
I used to purchase from Moglix many years ago. Never had any problem. Not sure how it is now.
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Thanks, will go ahead and order it!
 
ER605 is the best if you have the money and want a plug and play without much fiddling solution. Alternatively if you have more time and less money, you could do it with a cheap or used (prefer a gigabit unit) OpenWRT router using the MWAN pacakage https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/network/wan/multiwan/mwan3 . These mostly do fail-over and not true aggregation (bonding/MPTCP), as @vishalrao pointed out.
vishalrao said:
Note that you will only get the benefits of aggregate if your app is using multiple connection to download like speedtest, fast.com or torrent but other apps or even operating system update use single connection and you can configure the tplink to give preference to your faster link.
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ibose said:
Is it possible to have true WAN aggregation ? I thought it was possible only on the LAN side.
Edit : There is this available although with all the hoops and jumps, I am not sure if its even worth it or cheap -
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It is possible, if you have a cloud server. I guess that fact puts it out of reach of most home setups. https://www.youtube.com/c/OneMarcFifty/search?query=mtcp. In some remote areas, for offices, we need multiple connections, mostly for redundancy rather than outright speed. The ER605 is much simpler for such redundancy and simple load-balancing. Failover happens automatically and unattended. But MPTCP has many other possible applications like being able to use both the wifi and the 4G data on the phone at the same time. It's still a work-in-progress.
 
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gwrench2000 said:
It is possible, if you have a cloud server. I guess that fact puts it out of reach of most home setups. https://www.youtube.com/c/OneMarcFifty/search?query=mtcp. In some remote areas, for offices, we need multiple connections, mostly for redundancy rather than outright speed. https://www.youtube.com/c/OneMarcFifty/search?query=mtcp. The ER605 is much simpler for such redundancy and simple load-balancing. Failover happens automatically and unattended. But MPTCP has many other possible applications like being able to use both the wifi and the 4G data on the phone at the same time. It's still a work-in-progress.
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Yes, just wanted to make sure that LB/FO and Link Aggregation are totally separate concepts and it is generally the former for WAN setups at home.
 
Link aggregation is wherein on Both A and B end you configure the device to consider two different interface to act logically as one and there are various different logic on how the traffic will use both those links.

Load balance is some thing where you program the device where you set some criteria/rule to put traffic on a particular link A or B.

Failover is something where you pre define traffic to flow to traverse through link A & B. if that fails or deteriorates than it would failover to B or A.When you merge load balance and failover concept than you get modern day Software Defined networks which uses DPI ,checks the policies / rules and utilize both the links at a time.if one link fails than all the traffic moves towards second link .

pfsense will also work wonders
 
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As a user of R605, unless you are an asbolute layman you are much better off setting up an openwrt or pfsense based router.
While the R605 is good for its price (3K) it has a whole bunch of issues as well.
 
vishalrao said:
@JMP what are the issues with the er605?
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  • During my use, fail over failed multiple times.
  • They seem to be using a old version of OpenWRT (2014 build?) to as the base for this product, I have not verified this personally, but saw a few threads that mentioned this on the TP-Link forum get removed quickly. Security is ?
  • Sometimes 1 core gets heavily loaded while others remain dormant.
  • They added Facebook Wifi compatibility which is a privacy concern, but not support for WireGuard.
 
@ibose they're Microscan and PDPL (Pune Digitalization) 500 and 300 mbps plans respectively.

I spun up Linode shared VM debian11 $20 monthly Mumbai location but just for a few days to try, won't be doing this for long.

Getting 800+ mbps with multiple connection speedtests and around nearly 700 mbps with single connection tests to nearby servers.

Far away servers where I used to get 100 or less now I get nearly 200 mbps single connection tests.

So it's apparently working, at least on the surface. Not sure long term speed, reliability and cost considerations.

@ibose the openMPTCProuter website lists a bunch of compatible vps providers, you can look for a cheap and nearby location there.
 
gwrench2000 said:
ER605 is the best if you have the money and want a plug and play without much fiddling solution. Alternatively if you have more time and less money, you could do it with a cheap or used (prefer a gigabit unit) OpenWRT router using the MWAN pacakage https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/network/wan/multiwan/mwan3 . These mostly do fail-over and not true aggregation (bonding/MPTCP), as @vishalrao pointed out.
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I have ER605 setup for my home and business and its working great.. @gwrench2000 helped me a lot..
I do have two ftth connection.
 
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