XRoads Networks "Unified Bandwidth Management" Internet & WAN Load Balancing

2009-01-28T18:23:00.000-08:00

Deploying Multi-WAN in a Slowing Economy
By XRoads Networks

This white paper demonstrates how to reduce costs and improve productivity when budgets get tight. The last thing a network administrator wants to hear in a slow economy is… “the network is down”.

Cost Reductions w/Improved Performance

Utilizing two (or more) inexpensive broadband connections instead of a single T1/Frame link not only delivers improved reliability, but as offers a substantial reduction in reoccurring circuit costs. The reality is that having two broadband connections vs. a single T1 connection delivers:

- More Bandwidth
- Lower Overall Cost
- Significantly Increased Reliability

More Bandwidth
A standard T1 link delivers 1.5Mbps, while the average broadband link (DSL, Cable, and Wireless) delivers around 1Mbps. Thus two average broadband links deliver 1½ times the bandwidth of a T1 link at a lower cost, with similar packet loss and latency as found on the average T1 connection.

Lower Overall Cost
The average cost of a T1 circuit is $500-700 per month, while the average business class broadband link is $100-200 per month. Even with two broadband links the cost savings could be $600 per month or $7200 per year; equal to a cost savings of over $20,000 over the course of a three year period.

Significantly Increased Reliability
On average a T1 link is down over 8 hours per year and depending on the size of your business that could easily translate to thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars in lost productivity, not to mention the potential for substantial revenue losses. When considering whether to implement a network reliability solution it is important to realize how such a decision could affect the company and those responsible for its network.

A study conducted by Infonetics Research found that 1 in 4 mid-sized organizations were no longer viable as an ongoing concern after a significant network outage occurred which affected daily operations.

When attempting to determine whether the costs justify the deployment of a multi-WAN solution, one must consider that an XRoads Networks’ solution can not only substantially lower operational costs but also significantly improve overall productivity through increased performance.

Additional Benefits

Improved Utilization of Bandwidth

Beyond network reliability and the addition bandwidth provided by our EdgeXOS platform, customers are also able to utilize its built-in traffic shaping and bandwidth management capabilities. Network administrators can improve end-user responsiveness through application prioritization and by throttling heavy network users. All of these capabilities are included in each of the EdgeXOS appliances.

Greater Understanding of the Network

A key factor towards controlling an organizations bandwidth is understanding how that bandwidth is being used. To that end, the EdgeXOS platform includes a number of reporting capabilities which provide detailed reporting as to who and what is utilizing the bandwidth. Our top ten graphs show who the heavy users are and which applications are taking the most network resources.

Peace of Mind

Every network administrator wants to know that their network is solid and that in the event of a failure, that they have taken the proper precautions to ensure that the network stays up and running 24/7.

The EdgeXOS platform helps to provide this assurance through its built-in network redundancy and bandwidth management capabilities. Every feature built-in to the EdgeXOS platform is designed for this purpose and XRoads Networks has a long track record of delivering reliable bandwidth management solution for Fortune 500 companies, educational institutions, as well as small to mid-sized businesses.

Summary

In a slowing economy the one thing you can't afford is network downtime. The EdgeXOS platform helps administrators maintain confidence in the reliability of their network and understand how the network is being utilized.

For more information, please visit http://www.xroadsnetworks.com

2008-10-28T07:51:00.000-07:00

Increase Performance and Reliability with a Link Load Balancer

If your company relies on the internet to do business, one way to boost performance and reliability is with a link load balancer. A link load balancer is perhaps one of the best ways to enhance a network by increasing reliability and performance of your broadband internet connection. A link load balancer aggregates two or more (usually up to 6) separate broadband internet connections into one single stream. In addition, a link load balancer is extremely easy to implement into any network and extremely cost effective.

How Does a Link Load Balancer Boost Performance?
A link load balancer can easily boost performance of your network by simply aggregating several broadband internet connections into one. Your business can now utilize all the bandwidth from all connections- not just one, single connection. This helps your business achieve both gains in speed and performance. A link load balancer also offers software that makes managing your data simple and convenient. It should be noted that besides boosting performance, reliability is generally increased giving you uptime at or near 99.999%.

How to Reduce Costs with a Link Load Balancer?
A link load balancer can help reduce costs for your business by giving you the option to place less critical data on lower cost broadband internet connections, while keeping critical data on a top tier broadband internet connection. In addition, since a link load balancer can switch from a connection that is offline or experiencing drop outs instantly and automatically to another carrier that is offering reliable service, you can easily save on what normally would be downtime and a loss of productivity.

For more information on how a link load balancer can increase reliability and performance, visit us at our main website at the following link: http://xroadsnetworks.com

2008-10-21T07:51:00.000-07:00

Link Load Balancer: Maximize Network Performance

A link load balancer is perhaps one of the best ways to boost broadband internet reliability. A link load balancer offers businesses the ability to provide a single internet connection from multiple providers. If your business depends on a stable, high performing broadband internet connection, a link load balancer can definitely help. Here is how.

Boost Performance with a Link Load Balancer
With a link load balancer you can have more than one broadband internet supplier adding redundancy and ultimately raising reliability. In fact, using a link load balancer your business can achieve uptime in the neighborhood of 99.999%. Aggregating several types of broadband internet connections into one is simple and cost effective. It should also be noted that you can utilize almost any type of broadband connection with a link load balancer including: DSL, T1, ISDN, DS3, cable, satellite, etc.

A Link Load Balancer Can Help Reduce Costs
One of the ways that a link load balancer can help reduce costs for running your networks is by allowing you to run non-critical data and applications on broadband connections that are lower cost, while keeping your critical data running smoothly on top tier broadband connections. And if ever one of your connections fails, a link load balancer can switch you over to a functioning connection automatically and instantly.

For more information on how a link load balancer can maximize your network performance, please visit our main website at: http://xroadsnetworks.com

2008-10-14T07:50:00.000-07:00

Internet Load Balancing: The Reliable Solution

For businesses that require maximum reliability and uptime from their broadband internet connection, one way to achieve this goal is with internet load balancing. Simply put, internet load balancing is an easy and cost effective way to aggregate several broadband connections into one. This solution not only ensures that if one connection fails, you have other providers that you can fall back on, but it also can increase overall internet connection performance. Here are just a few ways internet load balancing can help your business.

Maximize Performance with Internet Load Balancing
With internet load balancing you not only increase reliability, but you can also maximize performance. For most businesses, you can easily balance your incoming requests across multiple WAN links serving traffic between broadband connections that offer the best paths available. In most cases, this can be done by simply implementing an active DNS module.

Manage Your Network’s Routing with Internet Load Balancing
With internet load balancing, you can maximize productivity and your network by efficiently managing your data. Internet load balancing offers solutions for advanced routing capabilities. For instance, you can easily place less critical network traffic on a lower cost broadband supplier, while your critical traffic remains safe and reliable with your top tier broadband supplier. If service drops out or is offline from one provider, internet load balancing can automatically and instantly switch to another provider keeping you up and running at all times.

For more information on how internet load balancing can maximize performance and reliability for your organization, please visit us at our main website: http://xroadsnetworks.com

2008-10-07T07:48:00.000-07:00

An Internet Load Balancer Can Help Provide Your Business a Reliable Internet Connection

An internet load balancer is a great way to provide one, single internet connection from several broadband internet providers. Today, many businesses have the opportunity of choosing more than one broadband internet provider (e.g. cable, DSL, satellite, ISDN, etc). Utilizing several broadband internet providers to create one single stream not only maximizes reliability, but can also boost performance.

Benefits of an Internet Load Balancer
There are many advantages of using an internet load balancer for your network. First off, if your business offers 24/7 support or relies on the internet for critical applications, you can achieve maximum uptime reliability (99.999%). In fact, if one network ever goes down, an internet load balancer instantly switches from one provider to another so you experience no loss in connection. In addition, since you now have more than one provider, you can easily boost productivity with the enhanced performance your network now offers you.

Reduce Costs with Internet Load Balancing
For businesses looking to reduce costs, implementing internet load balancing has its advantages. First off, internet load balancing works with lots of broadband connections including: T1, DS3, Cable, ISDN, DSL, etc. Since you can have multiple sources of broadband, you can easily place less vital applications on low cost broadband options while critical apps remain on the more reliable connections ultimately saving you lots of money.

For more information on how an internet load balancer can maximize performance and reliability for your organization, please visit our main website at the following link: http://xroadsnetworks.com

2008-10-01T07:47:00.000-07:00

WAN Load Balancing for All Types of Businesses

If your business relies on a stable broadband internet connection then one way to reduce the risk of drop outs and loss of service is with WAN load balancing. WAN load balancing is perhaps the most effective way to ensure your broadband internet connection uptime is as high as possible. In fact, with WAN load balancing you can achieve 99.999% uptime. Here is how.

WAN Load Balancing Helps to Aggregate Several Internet Links
WAN load balancing can aggregate two or more separate broadband internet links creating one single broadband stream for maximum performance. Many businesses have the opportunity of connecting to the internet in a variety of ways including cable, T1, ISDN, DSL, satellite, etc. By combining more than one method into a single stream, you can easily cut costs and achieve reliability and redundancy to ensure your network is up and running at all times. Besides the gains of reliability, most businesses also achieve higher performance.

WAN Load Balancing Offers Plenty of Features
With WAN load balancing you not only increase reliability, but you can maximize your internet connection’s performance. WAN load balancing offers businesses a great way to ensure that email, large file transfers and general data transfers are managed efficiently. And since WAN load balancing is cost effective, it is the perfect solution for almost any size or type of business.

For more information on how WAN Load Balancing can maximize performance and reliability in your organization or to purchase a WAN load balancing solution today, please visit our main website at the following link: http://xroadsnetworks.com

2008-09-24T07:46:00.000-07:00

Boost Productivity & Reliability with WAN Load Balancing

A dependable broadband internet connection is extremely vital to most businesses that rely on the internet for email, VOIP and access to web servers. However, even with innovations in technology drop outs and the loss of an internet connection can be commonplace. For many businesses looking to achieve ultimate reliability, one method is to implement WAN load balancing. WAN load balancing is one of the most cost effective and least complex ways to enhance the reliability of your business’s internet connection.

Increase Reliability with WAN Load Balancing
It’s actually quite simple and cost effective to increase reliability and boost internet performance with WAN load balancing. WAN load balancing gives you the ability to aggregate two or more broadband internet connection into one. In some cases you can have up to 6 separate broadband links aggregated into one single, reliable connection. With this capability, you can easily achieve a boost in performance, redundancy and limit the risk of your internet connection going down or dropping out.

Features of WAN Load Balancing
WAN load balancing can offer reliability that approaches 99.999% uptime. In addition, WAN load balancing gives you the tools and resources needed to boost your networks performance- easily increasing the speeds for uploading files, web access and the management of data.

For more information on how WAN Load Balancing can help your organization or to purchase this solution today, please visit our main website at the following link: http://xroadsnetworks.com

2008-09-17T07:45:00.000-07:00

Enhance Your Network’s Reliability with a WAN Load Balancer

For many businesses a solid reliable broadband internet connection is vital to conducting everyday business including tasks such as sending and receiving email, updating web servers and using VOIP technology. Unfortunately, broadband internet connections are still not 100% reliable and can go down from time to time or experience drop outs. For businesses that require reliable broadband internet one of the best solutions available is a WAN load balancer. Here are some of the ways in which a WAN load balance can increase reliability and performance cost effectively.

Enhanced Reliability with a WAN Load Balancer
You can achieve productivity gains simply with the help of a WAN load balancer. A WAN load balancer gives your organization the ability to aggregate two or more broadband internet connections (and in some case up to 6 broadband links) into one, single connection assisting your organization to achieve maximum performance and limiting the risk of downtime and drop outs.

Plenty of Great Features with a WAN Load Balancer
Not only can a WAN load balancer help you reduce downtime, but since it adds redundancy, it can help you achieve reliability within the 5 9’s (99.999%). A WAN load balancer can also help you boost your network’s performance, boosting speed for uploading files, web access and the ability to easily manage the data of emails. And because a WAN Load Balancer is cost effective, you no longer have to rely on other more expensive and complicated options.

For information regarding a WAN load balancer or to purchase one for your organization today, please visit our main website at the following link: http://xroadsnetworks.com

2008-09-10T07:42:00.000-07:00

Achieve Reliability & Performance with a WAN Load Balancer

A WAN load balancer is perhaps one of the best ways to achieve high reliability and network performance. A WAN load balancer is a device that can easily aggregate two or more broadband connections, not only increasing redundancy to maximize reliability, but boosting performance- all at an extremely low cost. For businesses that rely on the their broadband internet connection to conduct business a WAN load balancer is one of the best ways to achieve uptime in the range of 99.999% Here are just a few reasons a WAN load balancer should be implemented into almost every business that relies on a broadband internet connection.

It’s Easy to Boost Productivity and Reliability with a WAN Load Balancer
Achieving productivity and reliability gains is simple with a WAN load balancer, because it is able to aggregate two or more broadband connections (some models are able to aggregate up to 6 broadband links) into one single connection. Since broadband internet service is critical for email and network functionality, by having a second internet supplier (e.g. cable, T1, DS3, ISDN, DSL, satellite, etc) available, you can not only boost speed and performance, but reduce downtime cost effectively. In fact, you can achieve 99.999% uptime with the ease and efficiency of a WAN load balancer- ensuring that your network will stay up & running and ready for business.

For more information regarding a WAN load balancer or to make a purchase for your organization today, please visit our main website at the following link: http://xroadsnetworks.com

2008-06-04T13:24:00.000-07:00

Enhance the Reliability of Your Network with Dual WAN Routers

If your business is looking for an extremely reliable broadband internet connection, one of the best solutions available are dual WAN routers. Dual WAN routers are perhaps the easiest and most cost effective way to add redundancy, reliability and boost performance to your broadband internet connection. Here are just some of the reasons why every business should implement dual WAN routers for their network.

Add Reliability to Your Network at an Extremely Low Cost
For practically all companies internet broadband connection is vital to doing business. All it takes is for your broadband connection to be down for a couple of hours and you can lose sales and reduce productivity. However, with dual WAN routers, you can subscribe to two broadband internet connections simultaneously increasing reliability, redundancy and boosting overall speed performance and productivity. In most markets there are many internet broadband choices for a company, such as cable, ISDN, T1, DSL and satellite. Dual WAN routers make it cost effective and convenient to utilize more than one service provider to ensure that your network is always connected to the internet.

Dual WAN Routers are Feature Rich
While reliability and cost effective are two great reasons to implement dual WAN routers, it should also be noted that dual WAN routers come packed with lots of features. Some of the most common features include: management of both outbound and inbound data, QOS (Quality of Service) a technology that ensures critical data arrives at its destination in a timely manner, spam protection, intrusion detection, web filtering and support for VPN.

For information regarding implementing dual WAN routers or to purchase one today, please visit our main website at: http://xroadsnetworks.com

2008-05-29T16:19:00.000-07:00

Dual WAN Routers: Add Reliability to Your Business’s Internet Connection

Practically every company today relies on an internet connection to conduct business and if an internet connection is lost (even for a couple of hours) your business could lose sales and productivity. One of the best solutions to reduce the risk of internet connection drop outs and loss of service is having dual WAN Routers.

Dual WAN Routers: The Effective Way to Increase Reliability & Redundancy
One of the best ways to increase reliability and redundancy of your internet connection is to have more than one. With dual WAN routers, you can implement more than one broadband internet connection simultaneously to increase performance, boost productivity and reduce possible interruptions from a carrier dropping out or going down. Today, most businesses have access to more than one broadband internet connection, being either DSL, T1, ISDN, cable, satellite, etc- you can now take advantage of an extra connection with dual WAN routers.

Improve Reliability and Enhance Functionality with Dual Wan Routers
Besides being a great way to add redundancy to any network, dual WAN routers also offer a cost effective way to boost performance. Dual WAN routers come with various features that can enhance any network including: the ability to manage performance of both inbound and outbound data, QOS (Quality of Service) a technology that ensures critical data arrives at its destination in a timely manner, intrusion detection, virus protection, support for VPN and the ability to filter the web for your network.

For information regarding implementing dual WAN routers or to purchase one today, please visit our main website at: http://xroadsnetworks.com

2008-05-23T10:53:00.000-07:00

A Dual WAN Router Offers Reliability and Performance

A high quality, reliable internet connection is vital for businesses today. It can be difficult to run a business without email, VOIP and a working internet connection even for a few hours. While broadband internet service providers have grown more reliable over the past few years, drop outs and a loss of connection is still a common occurrence. For those looking to reduce the amount of drop outs and loss of connection, one of the best solutions available is a dual WAN router.

A Dual Wan Router Increases Reliability & Redundancy of Your Connection
A dual WAN router is one of the best ways to increase reliability and redundancy of your broadband internet connection. Today, many businesses have access to more than one broadband internet service provider (e.g. cable, DSL, ISDN, satellite) and by using a dual WAN router, you can now simultaneously connect to more than one broadband internet connection ultimately increasing reliability and ensuring redundancy in the case that one provider is having difficulties.

A Dual WAN Router Offers Many Features
A dual WAN router is one of the best ways to enhance the reliability of your internet connection. Not only are you ensuring redundancy if a provider goes down, but a dual WAN router usually offers a boost in speed and performance due to the fact that you are utilizing more than one connection for your network. It should also be noted that a dual WAN router is perfect for any size or type business and is extremely cost effective. A dual WAN router also offer a wide range of benefits including the ability to manage your incoming and outgoing data, web filtering, virus protection, intrusion detection, QOS and more.

2008-05-15T15:14:00.000-07:00

A Dual WAN Router for Exceptional Reliability
Businesses today rely on broadband internet. It seems close to impossible to conduct meaningful business without this technology. While broadband internet for the most part is reliable, many businesses may sometimes experience a loss of connection or drop outs with can severely disrupt a business- even if it is only for a short time. A dual WAN router is one way to increase the reliability of your internet connection and keep your business productive.

A Dual Wan Router Offers Redundancy and Reliability
With broadband internet being a priority for most businesses and having more than one broadband internet supplier now being an option in most markets, a dual WAN router offers the ability to simultaneously connect to more than one broadband internet connection. With a dual WAN router, your business can now subscribe to a variety of broadband options (DSL, T1, ISDN, cable, satellite) helping your business to achieve a reliable and redundant solution to drop outs and lost connections.

A Dual WAN Router Is Cost Effective and Feature Rich
Implementing a dual WAN router is extremely cost effective for practically any business. Set up of a dual WAN router is a breeze and since you now have two broadband internet carriers, you will most likely see a boost in internet performance and speed. A dual WAN router is easy to set up and maintain and usually come with a variety of features including: outbound and inbound load balancing (helps to manage performance), QOS (Quality of Service) a technology that ensures critical data arrives at its destination in a timely manner) virus protection and intrusion detection, support for VPN and web filtering features.

For more information regarding a dual WAN router, please visit our main website at: http://xroadsnetworks.com

2008-02-04T17:20:00.000-08:00

IT Pros: Stop by our Booth at Interop Las Vegas ‘08

Are you heading to Las Vegas for the big Interop Conference and Expo in April? If so, stop by Booth 367 April 29-May 1 and meet some of the XRoads Networks team. We’d love to share some of the exciting ways IT organizations are using our products and services. Plus we’ll give you a chance to a FREE T-Shirt or see our Managed Platforms offerings and/or new EdgeXL appliances.

Interop is always a great show with over 500 exhibitors showing off all kinds of IT solutions. If you're going and looking for a free Expo Pass, here's a priority code you can use: CMCLNL01

Be sure to stop by Booth 367. We’re looking forward to meeting you!

XRoads Networks Marketing Team

2007-08-21T12:07:00.000-07:00

So what is the difference between Vector Routing w/Best Path Routing and generic wan load balancing?

With our patent pending Vector Routing technology the EdgeXL platform provides the most secure, robust and reliable non-BGP multi-WAN connectivity solutions on the market. Our appliances link two or more wide-area network connections from one or more diverse network providers without the need for complex protocols like BGP or other expensive equipment. Beyond the additional bandwidth provided through the joining of multiple WAN links, the EdgeXL is able to deliver 99.999% network reliablity in the event of a WAN outage.

Some of our unique capabilities include:

• Best Path Routing: By de!ning critical networks the EdgeXL is able to automatically and continuously monitor these networks and manipulate the routing tables in order to always take advanatage of the most e"ective and responsive network path (SLA reporting is provided as a added bene!t).

• Multi-Level Outage Detection: Our patent pending outage detection module uses the most advance outage detection methedology available on the market today (with Virtual Technician)

• ActiveDNS: Provides the ability to actively update Internet domain name resolution in order to maximize inbound network sessions and instantly failover in the event of an outage.

2007-08-21T11:50:00.000-07:00

What is divese link routing?

Disverse Link Routing is essentially another name or wan load balancing, or internet load balancing. This is also sometimes called network load balancing or multihoming.

Whatever the term used, it all means the same thing... connecting two or more links (generally from the Internet) so that the LAN and communicate faster, more reliabily, and generally at a lower cost, without using expensive equipment or complex protocols like BGP (Border Gateway Protocol).

BGP is a very differnt protocol to configure and generally requires an AS number which can take a very long time to aquire. Coordination with each different ISP is also required, and it may also require expensive equipment and engineers to configure.

Diverse Link Routing has none of these requirements. In fact for most environments DLR can be configured in as little as 15 minutes. Once the wan load balancing is setup, end-users will immmediately see an improvement in both speed and reliability. Many users test out the redundancy capabilities by simply unplugging the primary WAN link and are happy to see that they continue to surf the Internet without any problems.

DLR is clearly a superior method for enhancing connectivity between the LAN and WAN. While there are many products out there that perform WAN optimization and traffic shaping, none provide a low cost method for adding both additional bandwidth and redundancy at the same time.

2007-08-21T11:47:00.000-07:00

Fluent Energy

XRoads Networks boosts productivity and reduces costs
for leading energy consulting company

About This Customer
This customer is an energy procurement consulting and technical services company that assists large corporate, industrial, and municipal entities in purchasing wholesale electricity and natural gas.

The Challenge
This year Energy Service Companies (ESCOs) were required to communicate with public energy utilities via an electronic data interchange (EDI) protocol. Since a loss of Internet connectivity in this environment can cost our company thousands of dollars in lost time and effort, it is essential to minimize any connectivity interruptions in a cost effective manner.

The Solution
After an analysis of several possible solutions, the company selected the XRoads Edge. This solution used two independent service providers connected to an XRoads Edge router. The Edge router allowed them to combine different link technologies such as DSL and T1 to optimize bandwidth, redundancy, and expense. The XRoads Edge router also provides a highly configurable set of features that helps unload LAN server functions, allowing them to configure their servers to provide highly available and redundant file serving and email functionality.

The Quote
“In addition to providing us with a highly flexible and cost effective solution, the level of technical support and service from XRoads Networks has been exceptional. Their support department assisted in evaluating our needs prior to purchase, and worked closely with us to ensure that initial installation was successful.”
Michael Mastroianni – President, Fluent Energy

2007-08-21T11:46:00.000-07:00

We wanted to share some of our latest solutions with this community, so from time to time we will post customer feedback and case studies to see how our solutions are being used in the real world.

2007-08-21T11:44:00.000-07:00

After a long intermission, the blog is back online.

2004-10-26T16:49:00.000-07:00

New DNS functionality in patch 9.

In this new firmware update, we have external mappings. For example, if there are two xroads units, 1 up and 1 in failover, both will have external mappings to one another for instances of round robin DNS. Example: ns1, ns2 point to one box, ns3 points to another. If the first box is up and the second one is in failover, and a client tries to browse to xyz.com and gets the ns3, it will go to the failover box. However, now with the external feature, the client will be redirected to the box that is up and running, box one.

2004-10-14T09:53:00.000-07:00

Customer Questions:

Since we are doing our load-balancing via dns servers, what happens when dns is cached across the internet?

Yes the Internet (i.e. DNS servers on the Internet) does cache DNS information.

To be more specific, the Edge router provides each server address to the various DNS servers and clients that request them. Each time a request is made the addresses are provided in a different order, and each DNS request times out within five minutes. Therefore there is a constant change in which WAN interface is used for the inbound traffic, and thus the bandwidth on each interface is "load-balanced". Additionally, various administrative parameters can be changed in order to adjust how the load-balancing is affected.

2004-10-14T09:50:00.000-07:00

Customer Questions:

- If you have to set the expire time for DNS to 300 sec instead of whatever the standard is (ours is 604800), doesn't this mean we are going to generate even more network traffic than we already have?

1) Yes, you are correct that additional DNS queries will be made, however the average DNS request is tiny (less than .5 Kbytes), and this is smaller then just about any other type of traffic. Other redundancy solutions, like BGP or OSPF, use much larger packets than our dynamic DNS solution.

- What happens when requests are initially sent to ns2 first instead of ns1 while the T1 line hasn't hit the threshold? Will the requests be rerouted back to ns1? If so, won't this add extra time to the overall process?

2) There is no additional processing time required based on the WAN link the request came in on. Both ns1 and ns2 on the Edge device respond dynamically. They are not tied to either WAN interface. So if a request came in on WAN1, it could provide WAN2's IP information if that is how the vector routing engine has determined its response.

2004-09-02T15:09:00.000-07:00

Our redundancy platforms are based on our Vector Routing technology, which is detailed in the white paper included in this blog.

2004-09-01T11:35:00.000-07:00

The Proxy / NAT Load Balancing configuration is designed for organizations which have existing routable public address space on the LAN networks and want a transparent installation, so as not to require any re-addressing.

For more information please reference: How To Configure Proxy Load Balancing with Network Failover

2004-08-31T15:47:00.000-07:00

How can I use a VPN with a network redundancy solution?

In order to setup a VPN connection through a network redundancy router, the following requirements must be met:

- Dynamic IP VPN in “Aggressive Mode”

- IKE Keepalives set to occur fairly often (every 30 seconds recommended)

- Dead peer detection enabled (if available) and set for three misses over 180 seconds or less

VPN Operation:

By configuring VPN in this manner it will work 100% in failover mode (as long as dead peer detection is enabled). It will also work in load balancing mode, however it may occasionally timeout and need to re-sync (reset the SA or Security Association). This is accomplished via the dead peer detection process mentioned above. This re-syncing should not occur very often, and will not as long as the keepalives are set to a low number.

If your VPN does not support NAT pass-through the VPN will NOT work on failover. It is recommended that a NAT enabled VPN solution is used.

If dead-peer detection is not enabled, then manual intervention when a network failure occurs is required.