[gentoo-user] Gentoo router for multiple ISPs?

[gentoo-user] Gentoo router for multiple ISPs?

[Mark Knecht]

Hi all,
   I need to get a second ISP line into the house. I currently have a
cable modem but it goes down once in a while and my work requires
higher reliability so I was thinking of getting a DSL line to
supplement it. I'd like to investigate creating some sort of
firewall/router that could do the following:

1) Load balance between the two lines during the day. I get download
speeds of about 6Mb/S from my current Cable Modem and supposedly about
3Mb/S from the DSL. I'd like to get something like 8-9Mb/S aggregate
from the two together if possible.

2) I need rules that keep certain machines off of the cable modem
during specific hours.

3) I MUST have some sort of AUTOMATIC switch over such that if one
line goes down the second line takes over and runs everything while at
the same time informing me that a line is down. This machine must be
able to test, once a minute or faster, that both lines are up and take
action immediately if something is wrong. It must then correct if the
down line comes back up.

4) I can either use this same machine as a firewall or I can simply
hook it to my existing LinkSys since I'll still need wireless to get
around the house. I figure I'll run the LinkSys inside this Gentoo
machine anyway. I figure I'll want a firewall on this machine since it
will be directly on the net anyway.

   Are features like this available in some sort of package from portage?

   Note that I'd be perfectly happy buying some box for less than
$100-$200 that could do all of this automatically but I haven't found
one yet.

Thanks,
Mark
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[gentoo-user] Re: Gentoo router for multiple ISPs?

[James]

Mark Knecht <markknecht <at> gmail.com> writes:

>    I need to get a second ISP line into the house. I currently have a
> cable modem but it goes down once in a while and my work requires
> higher reliability so I was thinking of getting a DSL line to
> supplement it. I'd like to investigate creating some sort of
> firewall/router that could do the following:

BGP4 is the way to be truely multi-homed, but that not likely
to be an option. SCTP promises looks promising for the future, 
but it is implemented at the service/application level.


I will be interested to see what others suggest for 
low-budget multi homing....or some subset thereof.

I'm glad you posted this question, as my situation is slightly
different (single static IP currently) on a cable modem, but
my needs are similar to yours.


James



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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Gentoo router for multiple ISPs?

[Mark Knecht]

On Sat, Apr 12, 2008 at 1:18 PM, James <wireless@tampabay.rr.com> wrote:
> Mark Knecht <markknecht <at> gmail.com> writes:
>
>  >    I need to get a second ISP line into the house. I currently have a
>  > cable modem but it goes down once in a while and my work requires
>  > higher reliability so I was thinking of getting a DSL line to
>  > supplement it. I'd like to investigate creating some sort of
>  > firewall/router that could do the following:
>
>  BGP4 is the way to be truely multi-homed, but that not likely
>  to be an option. SCTP promises looks promising for the future,
>  but it is implemented at the service/application level.

Thanks for the response.

I wonder if BGP4 would be supported inside of an ISP's network? It
seems to be more of a spec than a product. I'm not really reading in
any depth. Just sort of scanning around

I don't understand SCTP yet but it seems spec oriented instead of
being a piece of software.
>
>
>  I will be interested to see what others suggest for
>  low-budget multi homing....or some subset thereof.
>
>  I'm glad you posted this question, as my situation is slightly
>  different (single static IP currently) on a cable modem, but
>  my needs are similar to yours.

Well, I have a single IP right now but I did order the DSL line today.
If nothing else it will sit here unused and only get plugged in when
the cable modem  line is down. That's pretty brute force

I found a couple of threads about using a FreeBSD firewall called ipfw
but the little bit of checking I did didn't show it in portage.

I'm curious as to whether ipchains or something like that could do
most of this. Even if it was just hooked up to both ISPs and I had to
flip a software switch to go between them at least I wouldn't have to
run around much to get the change enabled. I'm very sure with ipchains
I could send the game traffic out on the DSL line and reserve cable
modem for my work most of the time.

Just thinking...

Cheers,
Mark
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Re: [gentoo-user] Gentoo router for multiple ISPs?

[Eray Aslan]

On 12.04.2008 21:11, Mark Knecht wrote:
> Hi all,
>    I need to get a second ISP line into the house. I currently have a
> cable modem but it goes down once in a while and my work requires
> higher reliability so I was thinking of getting a DSL line to
> supplement it. I'd like to investigate creating some sort of
> firewall/router that could do the following:

1. Load balancing is easy.  Just read up on it.  http://lartc.org/ is a 
good start.  Basically, you will have to modify your iptables and 
routing table rules.

2. Check the time extension of iptables.  Also many services and daemons 
have in built facility for day and time based access control. For 
example xinetd offers data and time based access control.  You might 
want to go that route depending on what service you want to control.

3. Automatic failover is the hard part.  AFAIK, Linux can determine if 
the next hop is down and do automatic switch over.  But if you have a 
problem further down the line, kernel won't detect it.  For DSL, you 
might want to use your modem as a bridge and connect directly with PPP 
to your ISP so that you can detect if the link goes down (that seems to 
be most common case).  I do not know if the same is possible with cable 
modems as I have not used one in a long time.  Another alternative is to 
run a cron job that pings a certain host(s) on the internet and 
depending on the result adjusts the routing the table accordingly.

HTH
-- 
Eray

> 1) Load balance between the two lines during the day. I get download
> speeds of about 6Mb/S from my current Cable Modem and supposedly about
> 3Mb/S from the DSL. I'd like to get something like 8-9Mb/S aggregate
> from the two together if possible.
> 
> 2) I need rules that keep certain machines off of the cable modem
> during specific hours.
> 
> 3) I MUST have some sort of AUTOMATIC switch over such that if one
> line goes down the second line takes over and runs everything while at
> the same time informing me that a line is down. This machine must be
> able to test, once a minute or faster, that both lines are up and take
> action immediately if something is wrong. It must then correct if the
> down line comes back up.
> 
> 4) I can either use this same machine as a firewall or I can simply
> hook it to my existing LinkSys since I'll still need wireless to get
> around the house. I figure I'll run the LinkSys inside this Gentoo
> machine anyway. I figure I'll want a firewall on this machine since it
> will be directly on the net anyway.
> 
>    Are features like this available in some sort of package from portage?
> 
>    Note that I'd be perfectly happy buying some box for less than
> $100-$200 that could do all of this automatically but I haven't found
> one yet.
> 
> Thanks,
> Mark
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[gentoo-user] Re: Gentoo router for multiple ISPs?

[James]

Mark Knecht <markknecht <at> gmail.com> writes:


> I wonder if BGP4 would be supported inside of an ISP's network?

NO, you need your won ASN:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomous_system_(Internet)



> I don't understand SCTP yet but it seems spec oriented instead of
> being a piece of software.


It's a new RFC related more to local networks with multipath
needs. Still some applications may benefit which seem to be
multi-homed.



> Well, I have a single IP right now but I did order the DSL line today.
> If nothing else it will sit here unused and only get plugged in when
> the cable modem  line is down. That's pretty brute force
> 
> I found a couple of threads about using a FreeBSD firewall called ipfw
> but the little bit of checking I did didn't show it in portage.

Ucarp is there (in portage) but it is used for (auto)failover of
routers built from pc hardware.

> I'm curious as to whether ipchains or something like that could do
> most of this. Even if it was just hooked up to both ISPs and I had to
> flip a software switch to go between them at least I wouldn't have to
> run around much to get the change enabled. I'm very sure with ipchains
> I could send the game traffic out on the DSL line and reserve cable
> modem for my work most of the time.


Certainly the rules of IPtables will have to be modified to implement
any of the various schemes to "automagically" utilize multiple
Internet connections.

That said, I found this link you may want to look at:

http://gentoo-wiki.com/Dual_internet_connections



James



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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Gentoo router for multiple ISPs?

[Mark Knecht]

On Sun, Apr 13, 2008 at 4:09 PM, James <wireless@tampabay.rr.com> wrote:
> Mark Knecht <markknecht <at> gmail.com> writes:
>
<SNIP>
>
>  That said, I found this link you may want to look at:
>
>  http://gentoo-wiki.com/Dual_internet_connections
>

Thanks James. The link looks quite interesting.
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