Re: Consumer-grade dual-homed connectivity options?

2010-01-04 Thread Vincent C Jones
Most of the SOHO router vendors (Netgear, Linksys, etc) have a model
targeted at this application. When this class of dual homed router
first came out several years ago, they were notoriously unreliable, but
I would hope they work better by now. A search on the term ping based
routing should give you insight into the current state of affairs,
although it will probably take some work because there is no standard
terminology to describe the facility, and most implementations no longer
rely on ping to do the job of detecting link status.

A few limitations to keep in mind:

1 - These routers are targeted at home users, are cheap, and you don't
get what you don't pay for. 

2 - The job can be done using real routers (Cisco, Juniper, etc), but
setup requires work and getting a solution that actually works can be
tricky. 

3 - Be wary of any advice that you get from anyone who has not actually
done it on the box in question! There are many ways a solution which
should work will fail miserably. For example, when I looked at this
problem a few years ago for a client, the SOHO routers tended to lock up
and require a power cycle every few days while Cisco IOS routers would
not clear the NAT table when a link failed soft and tended to stop
testing a link once it failed, requiring manual recovery.

Good luck and have fun!
--
Vincent C Jones
Networking Unlimited, Inc.
www.networkingunlimited.com


On Sat, 2010-01-02 at 18:14 -0500, Steven King wrote:
 You would need at least one router for this.
 
 Personally I would connect both DSL modems into a small Cisco router or
 multi-layer switch. Use that router as the default gateways for each LAN
 and have two static routes as the default gateway on the router to
 specify each DSL line. This would allow for load balancing each connection.
 
 Although, you run into the issue of needing PAT on both lines. This
 wouldn't be complex, but would need to be handled by the router as well.
 
 I am not sure about asymmetric paths though. Depending on the device, it
 may handle this differently, and there is no guarantee that the source
 of your traffic will be from the same connection all the time to the
 destination. This would cause connectivity issues. There really is no
 elegant solution to that without having a full routing table of the
 Internet and 2 separate providers. Others on this list may have a
 solution to that issue off the top of their heads, or have done this
 themselves.
 
 
 On 1/2/10 5:48 PM, Scott Weeks wrote:
 
  --- paul.w.benn...@gmail.com wrote:
  From: Paul Bennett paul.w.benn...@gmail.com
 
  At home, I currently run two DSL lines. Right now, we just have two  
  separate LANs, one connected to each line, with my wife's devices attached  
  to one, and my devices attached to the other. For a while now, I've been  
  thinking about setting up a load-balancing routing solution to give both  
  of us access to both lines.
  ---
 
 
  Maybe www.xincom.com/products.php will work?
 
  scott
 

 



Re: Consumer-grade dual-homed connectivity options?

2010-01-03 Thread Mathias Seiler
Hi Paul

You can do this on a linux box with a pretty much basic kernel.

I currently have a similar setup at home with a DSL and a cable line (from 
different providers).
Here's the script I'm actually using: http://ocaholic.ch/download/multinat.txt

Some packets are tagged with iptables (SSH as an example) because I want it to 
prefer the DSL connection. You can do pretty interesting things with it, even 
per-packet round-robin distribution … which is a Bad Idea™ though.

If you want it to fail-over automatically you need to patch the kernel etc. 
You'll find all information on http://lartc.org/ (especially on 
http://lartc.org/howto/lartc.rpdb.multiple-links.html) and here: 
http://www.ssi.bg/~ja/#routes

This setup is running for about a year now and it does this quite well.


Regards

Begin forwarded message:

 
 --- paul.w.benn...@gmail.com wrote:
 From: Paul Bennett paul.w.benn...@gmail.com
 
 At home, I currently run two DSL lines. Right now, we just have two  
 separate LANs, one connected to each line, with my wife's devices attached  
 to one, and my devices attached to the other. For a while now, I've been  
 thinking about setting up a load-balancing routing solution to give both  
 of us access to both lines.
 ---
 

Mathias Seiler

MiroNet GmbH, Strassburgerallee 86, CH-4055 Basel
T +41 61 201 30 90, F +41 61 201 30 99

mathias.sei...@mironet.ch
www.mironet.ch





Re: Consumer-grade dual-homed connectivity options?

2010-01-02 Thread Scott Weeks


--- paul.w.benn...@gmail.com wrote:
From: Paul Bennett paul.w.benn...@gmail.com

At home, I currently run two DSL lines. Right now, we just have two  
separate LANs, one connected to each line, with my wife's devices attached  
to one, and my devices attached to the other. For a while now, I've been  
thinking about setting up a load-balancing routing solution to give both  
of us access to both lines.
---


Maybe www.xincom.com/products.php will work?

scott



Re: Consumer-grade dual-homed connectivity options?

2010-01-02 Thread Steven King
You would need at least one router for this.

Personally I would connect both DSL modems into a small Cisco router or
multi-layer switch. Use that router as the default gateways for each LAN
and have two static routes as the default gateway on the router to
specify each DSL line. This would allow for load balancing each connection.

Although, you run into the issue of needing PAT on both lines. This
wouldn't be complex, but would need to be handled by the router as well.

I am not sure about asymmetric paths though. Depending on the device, it
may handle this differently, and there is no guarantee that the source
of your traffic will be from the same connection all the time to the
destination. This would cause connectivity issues. There really is no
elegant solution to that without having a full routing table of the
Internet and 2 separate providers. Others on this list may have a
solution to that issue off the top of their heads, or have done this
themselves.


On 1/2/10 5:48 PM, Scott Weeks wrote:

 --- paul.w.benn...@gmail.com wrote:
 From: Paul Bennett paul.w.benn...@gmail.com

 At home, I currently run two DSL lines. Right now, we just have two  
 separate LANs, one connected to each line, with my wife's devices attached  
 to one, and my devices attached to the other. For a while now, I've been  
 thinking about setting up a load-balancing routing solution to give both  
 of us access to both lines.
 ---


 Maybe www.xincom.com/products.php will work?

 scott

   

-- 
Steve King

Network Engineer - Liquid Web, Inc.
Cisco Certified Network Associate
CompTIA Linux+ Certified Professional
CompTIA A+ Certified Professional




RE: Consumer-grade dual-homed connectivity options?

2009-12-30 Thread Tim Sanderson
Do you control or have access to the provider side-the PPPoE server-and would 
both PPPoE connections hit the same PPPoE server at the provider? If so, I 
recommend setting up a PPP multilink with both DSL lines. The DSL provider 
would have to support that capability. I also recommend something like a Cisco 
2691 router with two WIC-1ADSL cards. I have used this hardware for a 2xDSL 
multilink to my own home and it worked well.

--
Tim


-Original Message-
From: Paul Bennett [mailto:paul.w.benn...@gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, December 30, 2009 10:50 AM
To: nanog@nanog.org
Subject: Consumer-grade dual-homed connectivity options?

Not sure whether this is an appropriate place to post this, but I thought
I'd give it a shot, since you're all knowledgeable folks with regard to
networking things...

At home, I currently run two DSL lines. Right now, we just have two
separate LANs, one connected to each line, with my wife's devices attached
to one, and my devices attached to the other. For a while now, I've been
thinking about setting up a load-balancing routing solution to give both
of us access to both lines.

I have the opportunity to acquire a refurbed Cisco Catalyst 2960 at a
ridiculously low price. I also have access to a (nominally) spare
quad-core 64-bit PC with 8GB of RAM. I say nominally because I'm
thinking about setting it up as a media center / gaming rig connected to
the TV in the den. That's largely beside the point, but it bears pointing
out that keeping the PC available for my other needs would be a good thing.

So.

Is it going to be a more-effective solution to drop a few bucks on the
2960 and go through the hassle of learning how to set it up (and then
setting it up), or would I be better off putting a secured Linux distro
(e.g. gentoo-hardened, or something) on the semi-spare PC and running the
load-balancing via iproute2 and friends?

Either way, I'm looking at a learning curve, and a good amount of time
fannying around getting the damn thing working -- there's a good chance
I'd spend almost as much cash on the PC-based solution getting
good-quality network cards, and maybe fast HDD tech (though it seems like
RAM and cores would be more important than disk IO).

What are your opinions?



--
Paul


THIS MESSAGE IS INTENDED ONLY FOR PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL USE OF THE 
INDIVIDUAL OR ENTITY TO WHOM IT IS ADDRESSED AND MAY CONTAIN INFORMATION THAT 
IS PRIVILEGED, CONFIDENTIAL, AND EXEMPT FROM DISCLOSURE UNDER APPLICABLE LAW. 
If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, or the employee or 
agent responsible for delivering the message to the intended recipient, you are 
hereby notified that you have received this message in error and that any 
review, dissemination, distribution, or copying of this message is strictly 
prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please notify the 
sender immediately by e-mail or telephone, and delete the original message 
immediately. Thank you.



Re: Consumer-grade dual-homed connectivity options?

2009-12-30 Thread Steven Bellovin

On Dec 30, 2009, at 10:49 AM, Paul Bennett wrote:

 Not sure whether this is an appropriate place to post this, but I thought I'd 
 give it a shot, since you're all knowledgeable folks with regard to 
 networking things...
 
 At home, I currently run two DSL lines. Right now, we just have two separate 
 LANs, one connected to each line, with my wife's devices attached to one, and 
 my devices attached to the other. For a while now, I've been thinking about 
 setting up a load-balancing routing solution to give both of us access to 
 both lines.
 
 I have the opportunity to acquire a refurbed Cisco Catalyst 2960 at a 
 ridiculously low price. I also have access to a (nominally) spare quad-core 
 64-bit PC with 8GB of RAM. I say nominally because I'm thinking about 
 setting it up as a media center / gaming rig connected to the TV in the den. 
 That's largely beside the point, but it bears pointing out that keeping the 
 PC available for my other needs would be a good thing.
 
 So.
 
 Is it going to be a more-effective solution to drop a few bucks on the 2960 
 and go through the hassle of learning how to set it up (and then setting it 
 up), or would I be better off putting a secured Linux distro (e.g. 
 gentoo-hardened, or something) on the semi-spare PC and running the 
 load-balancing via iproute2 and friends?
 
 Either way, I'm looking at a learning curve, and a good amount of time 
 fannying around getting the damn thing working -- there's a good chance I'd 
 spend almost as much cash on the PC-based solution getting good-quality 
 network cards, and maybe fast HDD tech (though it seems like RAM and cores 
 would be more important than disk IO).
 
 What are your opinions?

I know nothing of how to do this on a Catalyst; for PCs, my own guess is that 
you're looking far too high-end.  If the issue is relaying to the outside, I 
suspect that a small, dedicated Soekris or the like will do all you need -- 
there's no point in switching traffic faster than your DSL lines can run.  I'm 
not doing load-balancing, but all traffic from my house to the outside world (I 
have a cable modem) goes through a Soekris 4801, and I can download large files 
from my office at 12-13M bps.  Further, since the Soekris is bridging some 
networks, its interfaces are in promiscuous mode, so the box is seeing every 
packet on my home LAN.  Granted, there usually isn't that much traffic, even 
though the house is wired for GigE -- but I suspect I'm seeing about as much 
speed, end to end, as the cable modem will give me.

--Steve Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb








Re: Consumer-grade dual-homed connectivity options?

2009-12-30 Thread Jason Bertoch

Paul Bennett wrote:


At home, I currently run two DSL lines. Right now, we just have two 
separate LANs, one connected to each line, with my wife's devices 
attached to one, and my devices attached to the other. For a while now, 
I've been thinking about setting up a load-balancing routing solution to 
give both of us access to both lines.




Have you looked at a simple dual-WAN router?



Re: Consumer-grade dual-homed connectivity options?

2009-12-30 Thread Ken Chase
2x DSL not so backhoe-resistant.

I like mixing cable with dsl. Tasty disparate paths (modulo garden shears
applied to the single ingres point to your basement) if not technologies, orgs
and methodologies. Or radio + dsl, or pigeon + mule, take your pick.

Would be great if you could rate your connections somehow (ToS? packets under
1000 bytes?) and for those with high priority (voip, ssh  10K/s != scp, etc)
spray redundant udp packets containing your data down all links, first packet to
the end point wins.  Higher speed stuff just gets RR'd for aggregate
bandwidth.

Could even brute force your way through packetloss (ever try typing into an
ssh session with even 10% pl?) with redundant packets down the same links,
just use up 10K/s of bandwidth for 1K/s of desired throughput.

Nicer with the local cable co *IX'd a few ms away from the DSL endpoints. (I
suspect that higher latency differences would make this less viable). Course
there's still the issue of a single org at the endpoint - that's your SPOF,
but it's easily up more than my dsl at home here is. If it fails, use your
base connection to the other provider for internets (unfortunately your ips
for inbound connections wont be working during the outtage without more tricks
at the far end).

Does mulitlink specify any ability such as this, or is this a non existent 
protocol
as yet? Would anyone find it useful?

/kc


On Wed, Dec 30, 2009 at 11:12:59AM -0500, Tim Sanderson's said:
  Do you control or have access to the provider side-the PPPoE server-and 
would both PPPoE connections hit the same PPPoE server at the provider? If so, 
I recommend setting up a PPP multilink with both DSL lines. The DSL provider 
would have to support that capability. I also recommend something like a Cisco 
2691 router with two WIC-1ADSL cards. I have used this hardware for a 2xDSL 
multilink to my own home and it worked well.
  
  --
  Tim
  
  
  -Original Message-
  From: Paul Bennett [mailto:paul.w.benn...@gmail.com]
  Sent: Wednesday, December 30, 2009 10:50 AM
  To: nanog@nanog.org
  Subject: Consumer-grade dual-homed connectivity options?
  
  Not sure whether this is an appropriate place to post this, but I thought
  I'd give it a shot, since you're all knowledgeable folks with regard to
  networking things...
  
  At home, I currently run two DSL lines. Right now, we just have two
  separate LANs, one connected to each line, with my wife's devices attached
  to one, and my devices attached to the other. For a while now, I've been
  thinking about setting up a load-balancing routing solution to give both
  of us access to both lines.
  
  I have the opportunity to acquire a refurbed Cisco Catalyst 2960 at a
  ridiculously low price. I also have access to a (nominally) spare
  quad-core 64-bit PC with 8GB of RAM. I say nominally because I'm
  thinking about setting it up as a media center / gaming rig connected to
  the TV in the den. That's largely beside the point, but it bears pointing
  out that keeping the PC available for my other needs would be a good thing.
  
  So.
  
  Is it going to be a more-effective solution to drop a few bucks on the
  2960 and go through the hassle of learning how to set it up (and then
  setting it up), or would I be better off putting a secured Linux distro
  (e.g. gentoo-hardened, or something) on the semi-spare PC and running the
  load-balancing via iproute2 and friends?
  
  Either way, I'm looking at a learning curve, and a good amount of time
  fannying around getting the damn thing working -- there's a good chance
  I'd spend almost as much cash on the PC-based solution getting
  good-quality network cards, and maybe fast HDD tech (though it seems like
  RAM and cores would be more important than disk IO).
  
  What are your opinions?
  
  
  
  --
  Paul
  
  
  THIS MESSAGE IS INTENDED ONLY FOR PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL USE OF THE 
INDIVIDUAL OR ENTITY TO WHOM IT IS ADDRESSED AND MAY CONTAIN INFORMATION THAT 
IS PRIVILEGED, CONFIDENTIAL, AND EXEMPT FROM DISCLOSURE UNDER APPLICABLE LAW. 
If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, or the employee or 
agent responsible for delivering the message to the intended recipient, you are 
hereby notified that you have received this message in error and that any 
review, dissemination, distribution, or copying of this message is strictly 
prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please notify the 
sender immediately by e-mail or telephone, and delete the original message 
immediately. Thank you.

-- 
Ken Chase - k...@heavycomputing.ca - +1 416 897 6284 - Toronto CANADA
Heavy Computing - Clued bandwidth, colocation and managed linux VPS @151 Front 
St. W.



Re: Consumer-grade dual-homed connectivity options?

2009-12-30 Thread Brandon Galbraith
On Wed, Dec 30, 2009 at 10:46 AM, Ken Chase m...@sizone.org wrote:

 2x DSL not so backhoe-resistant.

 I like mixing cable with dsl. Tasty disparate paths (modulo garden shears
 applied to the single ingres point to your basement) if not technologies,
 orgs
 and methodologies. Or radio + dsl, or pigeon + mule, take your pick.


*snip*

I'm using cable and wimax in the Chicago suburbs with a dual-wan router.
Works well, would recommend to others, and so forth.



 /kc


 On Wed, Dec 30, 2009 at 11:12:59AM -0500, Tim Sanderson's said:
  Do you control or have access to the provider side-the PPPoE server-and
 would both PPPoE connections hit the same PPPoE server at the provider? If
 so, I recommend setting up a PPP multilink with both DSL lines. The DSL
 provider would have to support that capability. I also recommend something
 like a Cisco 2691 router with two WIC-1ADSL cards. I have used this hardware
 for a 2xDSL multilink to my own home and it worked well.
  
  --
  Tim
  
  
  -Original Message-
  From: Paul Bennett [mailto:paul.w.benn...@gmail.com]
  Sent: Wednesday, December 30, 2009 10:50 AM
  To: nanog@nanog.org
  Subject: Consumer-grade dual-homed connectivity options?
  
  Not sure whether this is an appropriate place to post this, but I thought
  I'd give it a shot, since you're all knowledgeable folks with regard to
  networking things...
  
  At home, I currently run two DSL lines. Right now, we just have two
  separate LANs, one connected to each line, with my wife's devices
 attached
  to one, and my devices attached to the other. For a while now, I've been
  thinking about setting up a load-balancing routing solution to give both
  of us access to both lines.
  
  I have the opportunity to acquire a refurbed Cisco Catalyst 2960 at a
  ridiculously low price. I also have access to a (nominally) spare
  quad-core 64-bit PC with 8GB of RAM. I say nominally because I'm
  thinking about setting it up as a media center / gaming rig connected to
  the TV in the den. That's largely beside the point, but it bears pointing
  out that keeping the PC available for my other needs would be a good
 thing.
  
  So.
  
  Is it going to be a more-effective solution to drop a few bucks on the
  2960 and go through the hassle of learning how to set it up (and then
  setting it up), or would I be better off putting a secured Linux distro
  (e.g. gentoo-hardened, or something) on the semi-spare PC and running the
  load-balancing via iproute2 and friends?
  
  Either way, I'm looking at a learning curve, and a good amount of time
  fannying around getting the damn thing working -- there's a good chance
  I'd spend almost as much cash on the PC-based solution getting
  good-quality network cards, and maybe fast HDD tech (though it seems like
  RAM and cores would be more important than disk IO).
  
  What are your opinions?
  
  
  
  --
  Paul
  
  
  THIS MESSAGE IS INTENDED ONLY FOR PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL USE OF THE
 INDIVIDUAL OR ENTITY TO WHOM IT IS ADDRESSED AND MAY CONTAIN INFORMATION
 THAT IS PRIVILEGED, CONFIDENTIAL, AND EXEMPT FROM DISCLOSURE UNDER
 APPLICABLE LAW. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient,
 or the employee or agent responsible for delivering the message to the
 intended recipient, you are hereby notified that you have received this
 message in error and that any review, dissemination, distribution, or
 copying of this message is strictly prohibited. If you have received this
 message in error, please notify the sender immediately by e-mail or
 telephone, and delete the original message immediately. Thank you.

 --
 Ken Chase - k...@heavycomputing.ca - +1 416 897 6284 - Toronto CANADA
 Heavy Computing - Clued bandwidth, colocation and managed linux VPS @151
 Front St. W.




-- 
Brandon Galbraith
Mobile: 630.400.6992
FNAL: 630.840.2141


Re: Consumer-grade dual-homed connectivity options?

2009-12-30 Thread Dorn Hetzel
I use a T1/26xx for primary and a sprint datacard in a little NAT router for
secondary.  The two boxes sit on the same LAN but provide different gateway
IP addresses.  The sprint router does the DHCP, so things that ask for DHCP
wind up using that as the primary.  Some boxes use the 26xx as default
gateway with static IP's outside the DHCP range.  A smart enough box could
choose paths per conversation by playing with the next hop.  If that active
path for a box fails I can just change it's default gateway to switch to the
other service.  I have a routable C I use for the LAN, the sprint
connections just NAT's it anyway, the other connection is firewalled but not
NAT'd.  Seems to work ok for me.  Could be made fancier.

On Wed, Dec 30, 2009 at 11:53 AM, Brandon Galbraith 
brandon.galbra...@gmail.com wrote:

 On Wed, Dec 30, 2009 at 10:46 AM, Ken Chase m...@sizone.org wrote:

  2x DSL not so backhoe-resistant.
 
  I like mixing cable with dsl. Tasty disparate paths (modulo garden shears
  applied to the single ingres point to your basement) if not technologies,
  orgs
  and methodologies. Or radio + dsl, or pigeon + mule, take your pick.
 

 *snip*

 I'm using cable and wimax in the Chicago suburbs with a dual-wan router.
 Works well, would recommend to others, and so forth.



  /kc
 
 
  On Wed, Dec 30, 2009 at 11:12:59AM -0500, Tim Sanderson's said:
   Do you control or have access to the provider side-the PPPoE server-and
  would both PPPoE connections hit the same PPPoE server at the provider?
 If
  so, I recommend setting up a PPP multilink with both DSL lines. The DSL
  provider would have to support that capability. I also recommend
 something
  like a Cisco 2691 router with two WIC-1ADSL cards. I have used this
 hardware
  for a 2xDSL multilink to my own home and it worked well.
   
   --
   Tim
   
   
   -Original Message-
   From: Paul Bennett [mailto:paul.w.benn...@gmail.com]
   Sent: Wednesday, December 30, 2009 10:50 AM
   To: nanog@nanog.org
   Subject: Consumer-grade dual-homed connectivity options?
   
   Not sure whether this is an appropriate place to post this, but I
 thought
   I'd give it a shot, since you're all knowledgeable folks with regard to
   networking things...
   
   At home, I currently run two DSL lines. Right now, we just have two
   separate LANs, one connected to each line, with my wife's devices
  attached
   to one, and my devices attached to the other. For a while now, I've
 been
   thinking about setting up a load-balancing routing solution to give
 both
   of us access to both lines.
   
   I have the opportunity to acquire a refurbed Cisco Catalyst 2960 at a
   ridiculously low price. I also have access to a (nominally) spare
   quad-core 64-bit PC with 8GB of RAM. I say nominally because I'm
   thinking about setting it up as a media center / gaming rig connected
 to
   the TV in the den. That's largely beside the point, but it bears
 pointing
   out that keeping the PC available for my other needs would be a good
  thing.
   
   So.
   
   Is it going to be a more-effective solution to drop a few bucks on the
   2960 and go through the hassle of learning how to set it up (and then
   setting it up), or would I be better off putting a secured Linux distro
   (e.g. gentoo-hardened, or something) on the semi-spare PC and running
 the
   load-balancing via iproute2 and friends?
   
   Either way, I'm looking at a learning curve, and a good amount of time
   fannying around getting the damn thing working -- there's a good chance
   I'd spend almost as much cash on the PC-based solution getting
   good-quality network cards, and maybe fast HDD tech (though it seems
 like
   RAM and cores would be more important than disk IO).
   
   What are your opinions?
   
   
   
   --
   Paul
   
   
   THIS MESSAGE IS INTENDED ONLY FOR PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL USE OF THE
  INDIVIDUAL OR ENTITY TO WHOM IT IS ADDRESSED AND MAY CONTAIN INFORMATION
  THAT IS PRIVILEGED, CONFIDENTIAL, AND EXEMPT FROM DISCLOSURE UNDER
  APPLICABLE LAW. If the reader of this message is not the intended
 recipient,
  or the employee or agent responsible for delivering the message to the
  intended recipient, you are hereby notified that you have received this
  message in error and that any review, dissemination, distribution, or
  copying of this message is strictly prohibited. If you have received this
  message in error, please notify the sender immediately by e-mail or
  telephone, and delete the original message immediately. Thank you.
 
  --
  Ken Chase - k...@heavycomputing.ca - +1 416 897 6284 - Toronto CANADA
  Heavy Computing - Clued bandwidth, colocation and managed linux VPS @151
  Front St. W.
 
 


 --
 Brandon Galbraith
 Mobile: 630.400.6992
 FNAL: 630.840.2141



Re: Consumer-grade dual-homed connectivity options?

2009-12-30 Thread Jared Mauch

On Dec 30, 2009, at 10:49 AM, Paul Bennett wrote:

 Is it going to be a more-effective solution to drop a few bucks on the 2960 
 and go through the hassle of learning how to set it up (and then setting it 
 up), or would I be better off putting a secured Linux distro (e.g. 
 gentoo-hardened, or something) on the semi-spare PC and running the 
 load-balancing via iproute2 and friends?

Back at the Toronto NANOG I bumped into someone who had an interesting solution 
to the multihoming problem.

What they had was a machine that would key/sequence the packets and send them 
out each connection (so if they had 2, it would send a copy out each).

Whichever got there first, was decapsulated and forwarded on.  Any 
duplicates/late packets were dropped.  This meant that they would always have 
the speed of the fastest link for either up or down.

They also had a method to load-share to bond the two (or more) links together.

It was some custom solution they built, but something I would like to see a 
link to or open-sourced.

- Jared


Re: Consumer-grade dual-homed connectivity options?

2009-12-30 Thread Dorn Hetzel
On Wed, Dec 30, 2009 at 2:03 PM, Jared Mauch ja...@puck.nether.net wrote:


 On Dec 30, 2009, at 10:49 AM, Paul Bennett wrote:

  Is it going to be a more-effective solution to drop a few bucks on the
 2960 and go through the hassle of learning how to set it up (and then
 setting it up), or would I be better off putting a secured Linux distro
 (e.g. gentoo-hardened, or something) on the semi-spare PC and running the
 load-balancing via iproute2 and friends?

 Back at the Toronto NANOG I bumped into someone who had an interesting
 solution to the multihoming problem.

 What they had was a machine that would key/sequence the packets and send
 them out each connection (so if they had 2, it would send a copy out each).

 Whichever got there first, was decapsulated and forwarded on.  Any
 duplicates/late packets were dropped.  This meant that they would always
 have the speed of the fastest link for either up or down.

 They also had a method to load-share to bond the two (or more) links
 together.

 It was some custom solution they built, but something I would like to see a
 link to or open-sourced.


I guess that method presume some cooperating box out there on the net
somewhere to coordinate the far end?


 - Jared



RE: Consumer-grade dual-homed connectivity options?

2009-12-30 Thread Ivan Pepelnjak
 At home, I currently run two DSL lines. Right now, we just have two
 separate LANs, one connected to each line, with my wife's devices attached
 to one, and my devices attached to the other. For a while now, I've been
 thinking about setting up a load-balancing routing solution to give both
 of us access to both lines.

If you decide to use an IOS-based router, you'll find most what you need here:

http://wiki.nil.com/Small_site_multihoming

Ivan Pepelnjak
blog.ioshints.info / www.ioshints.info




Re: Consumer-grade dual-homed connectivity options?

2009-12-30 Thread Ken Chase
  On Wed, Dec 30, 2009 at 2:03 PM, Jared Mauch ja...@puck.nether.net wrote:

   Back at the Toronto NANOG I bumped into someone who had an interesting
   solution to the multihoming problem.
  
   What they had was a machine that would key/sequence the packets and send
   them out each connection (so if they had 2, it would send a copy out each).

That's exactly what I was alluding to and you may have spoken to the person
that wrote the tool I was thinking of, as that's pretty much what I described.
(He and I both operate out of Toronto.)

   Whichever got there first, was decapsulated and forwarded on.  Any
   duplicates/late packets were dropped.  This meant that they would always
   have the speed of the fastest link for either up or down.

With similar links (my allusion to low latency between the far ends of the
upstreams across a local *IX), you really reduce jitter as well. Happy voip.

I've used it, it works, just need to get it out there. Esp out here, for my
voip because my latencies go up and down, so I'd rather have my packets go out
twice and first one wins. (I've assisted with customers that have this service
running today and have for a couple years, but I havent set it up locally here
yet as I havent had a real need for reliability til I went all VOIP. I used to
use plain mpppd across multi providers mainly for agg bw, but that's not
nearly as good as this solution for reliability.)

   They also had a method to load-share to bond the two (or more) links
   together.

As I mentioned, I think based on ToS or packet size. And can even pound through
packetloss with duplicate packets down the same link (though I dont think that's
implimented yet).

   It was some custom solution they built, but something I would like to see a
   link to or open-sourced.

Still is and still hasnt been moved into a proper wide-deploy testing and
marketing phase.  I think it would be useful, but wanted to gauge your
reaction. In fact, Im not sure what the next proper step in the whole
endeavour is. If anyone is intersted in testing/using/assisting with
marketing/selling it, contact me off list and Ill describe the particulars.
Note it aint my tech, I just work closely with the developer.

 On Wed, Dec 30, 2009 at 02:08:18PM -0500, Dorn Hetzel said:

  I guess that method presume some cooperating box out there on the net
  somewhere to coordinate the far end?

Also what I alluded to, you need a provider running the COE side of things (and
if they go down you lose everything except your basic links, assuming the same
one isnt responsible for both links). But we're looking at colo reliability
for the COE - done right should be up into the mutli-9s.

/kc
-- 
Ken Chase - k...@heavycomputing.ca - +1 416 897 6284 - Toronto CANADA
Heavy Computing - Clued bandwidth, colocation and managed linux VPS @151 Front 
St. W.



Re: Consumer-grade dual-homed connectivity options?

2009-12-30 Thread Jared Mauch

On Dec 30, 2009, at 2:08 PM, Dorn Hetzel wrote:

 I guess that method presume some cooperating box out there on the net 
 somewhere to coordinate the far end?
 

Yes.  This allowed the provider to use a variety of different technologies to 
reach a site, eg: IP over CATV, DSL, Fiber, Wireless, etc with built-in backup.

- Jared


Re: Consumer-grade dual-homed connectivity options?

2009-12-30 Thread Brett Frankenberger
On Wed, Dec 30, 2009 at 11:13:24AM -0500, Steven Bellovin wrote:
 
 I know nothing of how to do this on a Catalyst; for PCs, my own guess
 is that you're looking far too high-end.  If the issue is relaying to
 the outside, I suspect that a small, dedicated Soekris or the like
 will do all you need -- there's no point in switching traffic faster
 than your DSL lines can run.  I'm not doing load-balancing, but all
 traffic from my house to the outside world (I have a cable modem)
 goes through a Soekris 4801, and I can download large files from my
 office at 12-13M bps.  Further, since the Soekris is bridging some
 networks, its interfaces are in promiscuous mode, so the box is
 seeing every packet on my home LAN. 

Really?  If it's connected to a switch, I'd expect it to only see
broadcast/multicast/unknown destination MACs, as well as traffic
actually flowing through the Soekris.

 -- Brett



Re: Consumer-grade dual-homed connectivity options?

2009-12-30 Thread Joel Jaeggli


Brett Frankenberger wrote:
 On Wed, Dec 30, 2009 at 11:13:24AM -0500, Steven Bellovin wrote:
 I know nothing of how to do this on a Catalyst; for PCs, my own guess
 is that you're looking far too high-end.  If the issue is relaying to
 the outside, I suspect that a small, dedicated Soekris or the like
 will do all you need -- there's no point in switching traffic faster
 than your DSL lines can run.  I'm not doing load-balancing, but all
 traffic from my house to the outside world (I have a cable modem)
 goes through a Soekris 4801, and I can download large files from my
 office at 12-13M bps.  Further, since the Soekris is bridging some
 networks, its interfaces are in promiscuous mode, so the box is
 seeing every packet on my home LAN. 
 
 Really?  If it's connected to a switch, I'd expect it to only see
 broadcast/multicast/unknown destination MACs, as well as traffic
 actually flowing through the Soekris.

I believe he's refering to the situation where the soekris is doing the
bridging, since the soekris only has 4 ethernet ports and two pci slots
max it's likely that if you need greater than quantity 3 plus wireless
internal interfaces that you'll need a switch. given the performance
limits of even a 5501 I tend to disagree that the switching traffic
internally in software bridge at less than line rate at 100Mb/s is a
great trade-off vs say using a cheapo gig-e switch.

  -- Brett
 



Re: Consumer-grade dual-homed connectivity options?

2009-12-30 Thread Steven Bellovin

On Dec 30, 2009, at 6:23 PM, Joel Jaeggli wrote:

 
 
 Brett Frankenberger wrote:
 On Wed, Dec 30, 2009 at 11:13:24AM -0500, Steven Bellovin wrote:
 I know nothing of how to do this on a Catalyst; for PCs, my own guess
 is that you're looking far too high-end.  If the issue is relaying to
 the outside, I suspect that a small, dedicated Soekris or the like
 will do all you need -- there's no point in switching traffic faster
 than your DSL lines can run.  I'm not doing load-balancing, but all
 traffic from my house to the outside world (I have a cable modem)
 goes through a Soekris 4801, and I can download large files from my
 office at 12-13M bps.  Further, since the Soekris is bridging some
 networks, its interfaces are in promiscuous mode, so the box is
 seeing every packet on my home LAN. 
 
 Really?  If it's connected to a switch, I'd expect it to only see
 broadcast/multicast/unknown destination MACs, as well as traffic
 actually flowing through the Soekris.
 
 I believe he's refering to the situation where the soekris is doing the
 bridging, since the soekris only has 4 ethernet ports and two pci slots
 max it's likely that if you need greater than quantity 3 plus wireless
 internal interfaces that you'll need a switch. given the performance
 limits of even a 5501 I tend to disagree that the switching traffic
 internally in software bridge at less than line rate at 100Mb/s is a
 great trade-off vs say using a cheapo gig-e switch.

Correct, except that my Soekris has only 3 100Mbps ports.

My house is wired with COTS GigE switches.  Outbound traffic passes through the 
Soekris, which bridges to an older 100M bps switch.  That, in turn, is 
connected to the cable modem and a few older devices that don't need much 
bandwidth and only have 100baseT ports themselves, like a wireless access point 
and a printer.  

I have that setup for several reasons.  First, I want a point from which I can 
monitor outbound traffic -- home routers and switches don't have monitoring 
ports.  I wanted a DHCP server that supported static allocations.  I 
contemplated (but never implemented) putting an IPsec gateway there; I still 
may do that.  I'm about to move my IPv6 tunnel endpoint to the Soekris.  I have 
contemplated multihoming my house, though I might conclude that that would 
incur too many spousal points.  Finally, at one point I had a more complex 
topology for my home network -- certain locations in the house were separated, 
to permit imposition of restrictions for, shall we say, violations of the house 
AUP...

--Steve Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb