RE: Multiple external Networks...

  • From: "Jim Harrison" <Jim@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "[ISAserver.org Discussion List]" <isalist@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2005 13:23:29 -0800

Double-NAT only bothers those that think single-NAT is magic.

-------------------------------------------------------
   Jim Harrison
   MCP(NT4, W2K), A+, Network+, PCG
   http://isaserver.org/Jim_Harrison/
   http://isatools.org
   Read the help / books / articles!
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________________________________________
From: Andrew English [mailto:andrew@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] 
Sent: Thursday, February 24, 2005 13:10
To: [ISAserver.org Discussion List]
Subject: [isalist] RE: Multiple external Networks...

http://www.ISAserver.org
Hey Dan, 

"I think the cost of the program isn't as big of an issue as the fact that we 
have a cheap device sitting here that will essentially do the same thing, 
albeit not as gracefully"

My only fear with considering on using another device to weather or not it will 
still nat your two connections which means you end up with a double nat on your 
ISA box externally. With Rainconnect you don't have to worry about that 
possibility. Sorry but I have not tested RainConnect and since I don't have my 
second connection anymore its unlikely that I will anytime soon.

Andrew


________________________________________
From: Ball, Dan [mailto:DBall@xxxxxxxxxxx] 
Sent: Thursday, February 24, 2005 3:28 PM
To: [ISAserver.org Discussion List]
Subject: [isalist] Multiple external Networks...

http://www.ISAserver.org
Okay, looking for input from you guys, on our favorite topic, multiple external 
Networks!  
(I can hear Jim groaning already...)

The specifics:
ISA 2004 (SE)
Windows 2003 Server (SE)
1 external 1.5Mbps Network (NIC) connected to main ISP
1 external 4.5Mbps Network (NIC) connected to secondary ISP
Each ISP has a separate domain name, and I can use either one to access the ISA 
server from the outside, works great.

The problems:
1. In the current configuration, ALL outbound traffic is routed through our 
main ISP, leaving the other one pretty much idle. Basically, we're wasting 
money on this connection.
2. Due to a contract signed before I arrived, we're stuck with paying for this 
secondary ISP connection until the contract runs out in 2007.  
3. Although this secondary ISP is a 4.5Mbps connection (this summer it will be 
bumped to 7.5Mbps), it is shared by many other schools in the general area, and 
it turns out that our 1.5Mbps connection has a much better response rate.
4. I attempted to redirect subnets to use the secondary ISP through the ROUTE 
command, but found that only works with outbound connections.  For example, I 
cannot redirect all outbound requests to CNN's website using a broad subnet, 
and still have anyone else on the 64.x.x.x subnet to be able to reach us on 
inbound connections.  Thus, I'd have to specify specific IP addresses to be 
routed to do a manual version of load balancing, instead of an entire subnet. 
This is doable, but is a very tedious process.
5. About the only thing I can use this secondary ISP for right now is as a 
fail-over device.  But even then I'd have to go in and make all the changes to 
redirect traffic through the other NIC by hand, not practical for short-term 
outages.

Then enters RainConnect.  I've looked at this program a bit, but find the 
information on it a bit confusing.  Supposedly it will do what I need, which is 
load-balancing between multiple ISPs.  However, the descriptions of how it 
works shows a single NIC, with multiple virtual IPs connected to a switch, that 
is connected to the multiple ISPs.  If this is the case, I have a $69 hardware 
device sitting here that does pretty much the same thing but for far less than 
the cost of RainConnect (especially since it was donated).

My question is: Has anyone actually used RainConnect, how does it work, and how 
well does it work?  

I think the cost of the program isn't as big of an issue as the fact that we 
have a cheap device sitting here that will essentially do the same thing, 
albeit not as gracefully.

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