Hi
I’ve had non-standard home network from few days. Currently it’s “twisted” because I have 2 WiFi networks, each supported by a different router. So far, I only had a TP-Link router in Room 2. Now I also have an MT hAP ac lite router in Room 1 and an LHG LTE6 on the roof. hAP ac is an access point to the 5GHz network, but the 2.4GHz radio is used to connect to TP-Link in station mode. From the hAP point of view, it has 2 WAN interfaces: one to LGH LTE6 and the other to TP-Link. In this way, devices in the 5GHz network have access to the Internet via LTE and ADSL. However, devices on the 2.4GHz network can only use ADSL.
I would like to manage failover and load balancing for the entire network in the hAP router. I need such a solution because each ISP has its advantages and disadvantages:
The LTE ISP has a monthly transfer limit, but I achieve speeds of up to 30Mb/6Mb, although the speed strongly depends on the current load on the LTE network.
An ADSL ISP has no transfer limit, but it does have a technically limited bandwidth. Only maximum 2.5Mb/0.8Mb, because telephone line is over 8km long and is patched in many places (it passes through forests and fields). Technically speaking - it has no right to act. But it’s like a bumblebee: scientists have calculated that its wings are too small in relation to its body weight to fly. But the bumblebee doesn’t know this and flies…
What I would like to achieve:
client devices can connect to both WiFi networks and have Internet via LTE and ADSL
network traffic to Internet from 2.4GHz network clients should first go through hAP, which will decide which medium (LTE or ADSL) will be used to establish the connection
software only solution, I don’t want any drilling in the walls or pulling cables. I also do not intend to replace the routers with other ones.
The TP-Link router has poor configuration options other than AP mode, but it has the ability to configure VLANs (up to 8 tagged/untagged).
Any ideas welcome. I don’t expect very detailed information, but rather suggestions as to what possibilities you can see with this equipment.
The 5GHz clients traffic already is reaching the hAP so you could just route them to the LTE or ADSL internet connection
In this case if you have a different subnet than the 2.4GHz Wifi network you can add a static route on the TP-Link for the whole 5GHz network
If by some reason the TP-Link does not allow you to set static routes or if it will not do nat for another subnet
you could fix it with a srcnat rule on the hAP
The 2.4GHz clients traffic is currently probably going to the TP-Link
In this case you could configure the DHCP on the TP-Link to give the default gateway as the hAP and not itself.
If default gateway cannot be changed in dhcp settings on the tp-link you could disable it entirely and use the hAP to run DHCP for the 2.4Ghz network.
Another idea could be to bridge the 5GHz and 2.4GHz on the hAP so all clients appear to be on the same network. Then you arrive at the DHCP option mentioned above for the 2.4GHz clients traffic.
Once traffic from the clients reaches the hAP it is just a matter of choice on what traffic goes in which direction.
Thank you very much @RhoAius
These are very good ideas. To be honest, I was afraid of messing with VLANs or other complicated methods. I will try to force TP-Link to cooperate in the areas you described.
Yes, it’s different subnet, TP-Link has the option to add static routes. Although I haven’t been able to do this for the 5GHz subnet yet. Probably a NAT issue or a too restrictive hAP firewall.
TP-Link does not allow me to configure an alternative gateway for DHCP, but it will actually be better to turn off DHCP here and turn it on in hAP.
This idea seems the most interesting to me. I’ll check tomorrow to see if TP-Link will be making noise.
