Thread: Dual Internet On One Lan System

Hello All,
I am new to this forum & This is my first post

I have Two Airtel 2Mbps Unlimited Connections at home & Both of them are Seperate Lines.

One has 220BX ADSL2 Modem & one has 110TC1+Router ADSL2

Now i just moved into a new house and channeled all the wiring to one room.
I would like to connect both my Internet connections Through a Switch.
The switch Model i bought is below:[Linksys:EZXS16W-16Port]
I am not allowed to post web-links yet, so for those of you who wish to take the trouble to view the switch model, goto linksys(dot)com & find my Model

Now I have created a LAN Connection From Every Room to my Switch directly[Internal Wiring] & my Query is,
How do i Connect both connections such that few ports on the switch run on one Internet connection and the rest of the ports run on the other connection & at the Same time not losing my LAN connection For Printing and File Sharing & Stuff on all the ports.


Please Help!!

(a)Not possible.
(b)Your switch has/ may have only One input point.

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(c) How many systems ( computers ) are in use in each connection ?
(d)You may need a Dual wan router. to connect two ISP's different BB connection { airtel (2 }

REF:http://www.indiabroadband.net/broadb...mpilation.html (BEETEL 220bx ETC essbebe's compilation.)

You can't use a switch to do this.

You can achieve it, though: just set different default gateway addresses (you did give each router a different LAN address, I hope?) on different PCs. Each PC will then use the specified line.

This is not sharing, of course, but it is using both lines on the same LAN.

If you want to share, then there are the boxes that essbebe mentions.

Originally Posted by essbebe

(a)Not possible.
(b)Your switch has/ may have only One input point.

(c) How many systems ( computers ) are in use in each connection ?
(d)You may need a Dual wan router. to connect two ISP's different BB connection { airtel (2 }

Hello
I'd hoped otherwise for (a) & (b) but anehoo,
In regard to your (c) query, I have about 2 Laptops and 2 Desktops(possibly more in the near future)
But, heres the thing, I have provided a Keystone Jack in Every room on 3 floors, and channeled all the jack's wiring to One room into the Switch.
I did this cause...
1. I've had bad experiences with Routers & Wireless Networking
2. I want faster Data Transfer & Networking For Print & Sharing Capability from Every Room.
3. I did it so that every room can have a simple Plug & Play Internet & Networking.

Your (d) seems do-able but i dont exactly know how to achieve that.

& the reference link i didnt quite understand...not very adept with networking & such

But yea i can see we are on the right track & i thank you for that

Originally Posted by Nick_H

You can't use a switch to do this.

You can achieve it, though: just set different default gateway addresses (you did give each router a different LAN address, I hope?) on different PCs. Each PC will then use the specified line.

This is not sharing, of course, but it is using both lines on the same LAN.

If you want to share, then there are the boxes that essbebe mentions.

Hmm, correct me if I am wrong but does this mean that i cannot file share or give print commands from some ports?

And thank you for replying to this Thread

correct me if I am wrong but does this mean that i cannot file share or give print commands from some ports?

Correcting you

All it means is that different machines will access the internet through the routers you specify, and by specifying different ones, you can make use of both your broadband lines --- just, each machine will always use the specified modem/router to access the internet. It will not affect, in any way, filesharing or printing or any other LAN activity.

It may help if you do not think about "ports on your switch". Instead, think about machines (hosts is the techie term, regardless of what they actually do) on a network. All a switch is, is a network in a box. Once upon a time, not very long ago, an ethernet network was a cable, with a terminator each end, and machines connected to it along it's length. That is still how we draw a network...

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All points on that cable are equal: all ports on your switch are equal. There is more sophisticated stuff one can do with expensive switches in a pro environment, but it is not relevant here. The very first time I ever had to understand what a hub or a switch was, I imagined that cable folded up and put in a box: the concept has been working for me ever since --- but if you never knew thick/thin ethernet cables, and you find it adds confusion, please discard

1. Configure one of your modem/routers with LAN address 192.168.1.1 and the other as 192.168.1.2. Subnet mask for both is 255.255.255.0

2. Do not use "obtain an intenet address automatically" (DHCP) on your PCs. Pick a specific number, between 192.168.1.10 and 192.168.1.254 for each machine. Each machine must have a unique IP address. Subnet mask for all is 255.255.255.0

3. for Default gateway, specify 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.1.2. This is how you choose which broadband line each machine will use to access the net.


If you must use DHCP on a laptop or two... Hmmm... wish you wouldn't, but...

1. Make sure that DHCP Server is disabled on one of the router/modems. ie make sure you have only one DHCP server on your net.

2. Configure the DHCP server address range, say 192.168.1.10 to 192.168.1.20. Use only addresses above 21 on your other fixed-IP machines.

3. Tick "Obtain an IP address automatically" on those laptops to use this. They will use the modem/router that is set up as DHCP server to access the net.

4. None of this affects Windows networking (file or print sharing) or access to network-connected printers (which need unique IP addresses too, of course)

OH!!!! Sorry for the Late reply!

hmmmm, i think i am starting to get the hang of it...

So its basically all about specifying a unique LAN-IP|Address to each router on each computer(again if I'm right)

But i have one more query...also more importantly..what i wanted to achieve was a Plug-n-Play adaptability, wherein, suppose my friend comes along with his Laptop and wants to connect To the Internet, Will he have to again enter his IP address in the Network settings? Is it possible to just Gain Access to Internet through a simple Plug-n-Play!? & My house has 3 floors, so suppose one time i want to access Internet through the other floor? will I have to re-configure?

Basically, Is it not possible to configure the ports on the switch directly thereby specifying which Ports access which Internet Connection instead of configuring Manually on Each Computer??

No... unless it is a very sophisticated switch, you can't do that. Even if it is, I don't recall switches being able to do routing, which is what you are suggesting. Remember, each port is equal: it is just a connection on your LAN. You can move any computer to any port, it will still work just the same. Your friend can plug in his laptop, and it will work if you have configured DHCP as I mentioned above.

its basically all about specifying a unique LAN-IP|Address to each router on each computer

It's about specifying a unique IP address for each router (you have to do that anyway), and using one of those two IP addresses on each computer for 'default gateway'

Give it a try ...and come back to us with the problems

Try it with two PCs first, each with a different default gateway. See if that works. Then add a machine using DHCP and test that out --- once you have the principle sorted, you can add a dozen or a hundred machines, and everything will be fine!

OK, so you can access the net, but how do you know it is via the router you specifed?

Use traceroute

C:\> traceroute www.indiabroadband.net
traceroute to www.indiabroadband.net (96.30.37.142), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
1 gw-airtel (192.168.1.1) 1.090 ms 1.556 ms 2.002 ms
2 ABTS-TN-Static-248.253.246.61.airtelbroadband.in (61.246.253.248) 143.743 ms 149.723 ms 150.736 ms

... ... ...

Look at that first-hop address. Your output may look different, because I am using Linux, not Windows, and because mine is named in a hosts file. The information, though, will be much the same, and you will be able to see the route that PC is taking to the net.

Have fun



EDIT: looks like the traceroute command for windows is tracert

Okay Nick...

My house is still under renovation so its going to take a few weeks till i can move back in..Once that is done i will try your methods, you certainly have narrowed down my queries to its last stages & your help is greatly appreciated. Now all that is left is to Configure & give it a go.

Thanks for all the Help Nick_H & essbebe. Cheers~

You're welcome.

I just did a quick google and found that the traceroute for windows is tracert. I'd forgotten that.

You know you can connect a switch to another switch?

ie, a switch on each floor, with one cable from each going to a port on the main switch in your "server room". We used to have to use cross-over cables or manually change a switch on the port (switch on a switch <confusion>!) but these days, I think the ports are mostly self sensing.

Anyway... just mentioned it. You already have your cabling planned.