RE: Multiple external Networks...
- From: "Talley, Scott A" <stalley@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "[ISAserver.org Discussion List]" <isalist@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2005 15:19:38 -0600
I'll chime in on this one.. I use RainConnect and it works GREAT! I have a
similar ISP configuration with a conventional T1 and a wireless 3mb connection.
RC balances the inbound and outbound loads across these links to perfection -
I have about 100 internal users and host about a dozen websites and a couple of
busy mail servers. If either of these links blinks, noone but me ever knows
it. The investment in RC has been well worth it for me (don't forget about the
$1k annual support fee, they aren't that up front about it).
Thank you,
Scott Talley
IT Manager, The Combined Group
e> stalley@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
p> 469.892.4000 x829
f> 469.221.6900
-----Original Message-----
From: Ball, Dan [mailto:DBall@xxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Thursday, February 24, 2005 2:28 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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