Multi-Wan setup from separate modem-routers

RouterOS General
1

Introduction:

Hello everyone i am currently doing my first Structured Cabling , at home and i would like your opinions of what is the best approach to create a multi-wan setup using a Mikrotik router as a Centralized Management Router. So firstly i would like to give you an idea of how it is currently set up and what my end-goal is. I live in a country where we use VDSL2+ with vectoring and ISP routers use PPoE for authentication to get access to the internet. The cable itself is just 1 pair , one for sending and one for receiving and is connected using a RJ11 clip on the DSL port of each router. To reach my goal of a multi-wan setup i centralized everything on a rack. The Rack includes the following:

Gear:

  1. 2x ISP routers (Both have bridge mode & IP Passthrough functionality) - (Modem/Routers)
  2. 1x Patch Panel-24
  3. 1x Mikrotik CRS326-24G-2S+(Router & Switch, but no modem)
  4. 1x N5105 Fanless Mini-PC(4 port gigabit) (Proxmox-pfsense)

Goal:

What i want to achieve is a load-balanced multi-wan configuration on the Mikrotik Router with CAKE as the QOS for better packet management. The Fanless Mini-pc with proxmox installation and a pFsense virtual firewall to protect the devices behind while also serving services for automation etc.

My current order is: ISP → R1/R2 → Mikrotik → Firewall → Clients.
My ideal order is: ISP → R1/R2 → Firewall → Mikrotik → Clients.

Tell me your thoughts and guidance if i need to change something or what would be the optimal setup-order for it to work better. Thanks!

2

You might already start not using that crs326 as a router.
It's a switch.

It can do routing, yes, but it remains a switch at first.
Perhaps use the mini PC as router since you also plan to do firewall there ?

3

Concur you have a switch not really a capable router.
What is the throughput on each of your WAN connections??
If its acting solely as a switch looks good. If you expect the swtich to route and do the multi-wan, you got the wrong gear. Replace the mini-pc with an MT router ( ax3 for cheap, 5009 if you have the budget )

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4

Hi,
Choosing proper router is one problem but if it comes to configuration then please check many posts on "Multi WAN": Search results for 'multi wan setup' - MikroTik community forum
It will help you to understand basics.

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5

Use the N5105 with pfSense as the router (pfSense has support for Multi-WAN), and use the MikroTik CRS as a switch. Don't expect the CRS to handle CAKE and QoS with high throughput (because no Hardware Offload and no Fasttrack would then be available).

6

The internet connections are not that high it’s like 100Mbps each

7

Since the available bandwidth is not that high is this gear not enough for 2x 100Mbps connections?

8

The only concern about this was that i trust Mikrotik more than the mini-pc in terms of hardware. So i wanted to have the ability to check what is going on the mini-pc first before i switch to the mini-pc as the first in line device.

9

If you don't use CAKE but something less CPU intensive, then the dual core 800MHz CPU would be enough for routing with NAT with your 2x100Mbps lines.

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