Need a backup internet broadband connection

[TheForce]

Here's what I have now-
I have comcast cable modem connected to my router/firewall with Linksys equipment. It is both 802.11g and ethernet cables run throughout the house.

Every once in awhile Comcast shuts down the service for a few hours, mostly to perform routine maintenance, so the tech support CSR's tell me. When that happens I move to my laptop that has an EVDO A card with Verizon wireless and continue to work. But, all internet work is now done through the laptop interface.

What I would like to do is connect my laptop to my router with ethernet cable and have all computers on my LAN have access through the verizon wireless connection.

Is this possible and what would I need to do to make my laptop look like the cable modem on my lan?

 

[Van]

Its possible and I believe the company and product your looking for has an add in computer user magazine. The item in question allows for hooking up of multiple internet services for speed boost and redundacy in the event that should one or more go down. No idea on the cost as its not something I would need but I dont imagine that it will be within the pocket book of the average consumer.

 

[StevenD]

Have you considered an EVDO router?

 

[snathanb]

You could do it with the equipment you have now, but you would have to do the following each time you wanted to share the laptop EVDO connection:

1) Turn off DHCP on your router, essentially rendering it a switch.
2) Enable ICS on your laptop.

When you turn on ICS, it becomes the DHCP server and will assign network addresses to the rest of the devices in your home.

Again, not an elegant solution for a temporary outage... but it will work.

 

[hendrix04]

i wouldnt turn the DHCP server off on the router, i would just hard wire the laptop into the internet port on the router (still using ICS) and let it pretend your laptop is your cable modem (will act the same way)... You will need a cross over cable to go from the router to the laptop.

 

[TheForce]

Ah! Thanks guys. Internet Connection sharing will do the trick. I can fabricate the crossover cable which I also didn't know I had to do but it all makes sense. The cable port on the cable modem I guess is already wired crossover so you use a standard cable and it works but the laptop port is not, so you use a xover cable to the ethernet port on the router. I think I understand the setup now. I found the settings for ICS in the advanced connection tab and there it has a detailed instruction set as well.

So the wiring I will use is unplug the cable from the laptop with the EVDO card, connect it to a xover jumper cable that plugs into the router where the cable modem was plugged into, then check the box in the ICS section and it should work. I'll wire up an adapter cable for xover with two RJ-11 jacks to connect the laptop cable to the router cable. I give this a try this weekend and check back here with the results.


PS-
One question for hendrix04. If ICS makes the laptop work as a DHCP server and the router is also doing the same thing wouldn't that be two DHCP servers working in tandem? I thought that was a no-no in network wiring. Maybe snathanb is correct and you can only have a switch connected to the laptop. For me, that is not a problem since I have a 24 port switch for most of my lan anyway. The router has the wifi leg of the lan and I'm not sure how that will react but it will still be connected to the switch if I open it up and shut off DHCP. Either way both can get me out of a jam in a few minutes switch over.

 

[docpadds]

My router from cradlepoint, will do failover and load balancing. Your main connection does all the work, but when it fails the EVDO card is automatically used instead, then switching back when all is good.

CradlePoint Technology

Everything you need, even the WIFI built right in. Its my main internet connection at home, and we even use one at the office in case we loose internet access.

 

[snathanb]

PS-
One question for hendrix04. If ICS makes the laptop work as a DHCP server and the router is also doing the same thing wouldn't that be two DHCP servers working in tandem? I thought that was a no-no in network wiring. Maybe snathanb is correct and you can only have a switch connected to the laptop. For me, that is not a problem since I have a 24 port switch for most of my lan anyway. The router has the wifi leg of the lan and I'm not sure how that will react but it will still be connected to the switch if I open it up and shut off DHCP. Either way both can get me out of a jam in a few minutes switch over.

Perhaps hendrix04 has had a different experience on a different router, but in each case that I've done this, I've had to disable DHCP on the router, and leave the computer with the active connection plugged into one of the LAN ports, not the WAN port of the router. I've never had to use a cross-over cable to do it, either.

I do this quite often, when I have to fall back on the ATT 3G network, when my primary service drops out (which it does frequently).

When you do enable ICS, it helps if you do a release/renew of the IP addresses on the other computers, so they will obtain an IP address from the ICS DHCP server.

 

[snathanb]

My router from cradlepoint, will do failover and load balancing. Your main connection does all the work, but when it fails the EVDO card is automatically used instead, then switching back when all is good.

CradlePoint Technology

Everything you need, even the WIFI built right in. Its my main internet connection at home, and we even use one at the office in case we loose internet access.

It's a fine router ..... and a $250 hardware solution for something he can do for free with the equipment he has now.

 

[TheForce]

Perhaps hendrix04 has had a different experience on a different router, but in each case that I've done this, I've had to disable DHCP on the router, and leave the computer with the active connection plugged into one of the LAN ports, not the WAN port of the router. I've never had to use a cross-over cable to do it, either.

I do this quite often, when I have to fall back on the ATT 3G network, when my primary service drops out (which it does frequently).

When you do enable ICS, it helps if you do a release/renew of the IP addresses on the other computers, so they will obtain an IP address from the ICS DHCP server.

I'll try the simplest solution first and work toward the more difficult one, hopefully, I can confirm one of these is what I required to work. Not having to use a xover cable would be the easiest. I figured I had to do the release / renew too.

One thing I may need to do is connect my laptop with the EVDO card to the actual switch part of the router with the cable modem input. It also has the wifi xcvr. Currently the laptop is connected to a down stream 24 port switch that is connected to the router. It occurred to me that if I don't connect to the upstream router, the wifi part may not work. Any thoughts on this?

 

[snathanb]

I'll try the simplest solution first and work toward the more difficult one, hopefully, I can confirm one of these is what I required to work. Not having to use a xover cable would be the easiest. I figured I had to do the release / renew too.

One thing I may need to do is connect my laptop with the EVDO card to the actual switch part of the router with the cable modem input. It also has the wifi xcvr. Currently the laptop is connected to a down stream 24 port switch that is connected to the router. It occurred to me that if I don't connect to the upstream router, the wifi part may not work. Any thoughts on this?

That shouldn't be necessary. The wifi should still work no matter where it is located on your network. I use a wireless router with DHCP disabled as a Wireless Access Point in my home network and there is a switch located between it and my router. It works fine when I switch off DHCP on the wired router and enable ICS on my laptop.

 

[docpadds]

It's a fine router ..... and a $250 hardware solution for something he can do for free with the equipment he has now.

Ive been in this industry far too long and have come to love the automated solutions which don't require me to do didly LOL

Actually its a very good router just on the configuration side, let alone that it allows you to directly plug in cellular cards to it, and even tether blackberry phones.

 

[iwc5893]

Back up internet?!? I'm jealous.

Around here, that would be smoke signals since they're more reliable than dial up or satellite.

 

[Claude Greiner]

I have a NetGear Dual WAN Router which allows me to hook up to internet service providers. When one internet service provider goes down, the other one gets activated!

At the office I got a T1 and a Comcast cable modem.

True story a few weeks ago I was working on my computer at the office Via remote access around 1AM. T1 Circut goes down and my computer switches over to Comcast.

Turns out someone cut my phone lines, and because of the Cable modem backup I was able to login to my camera server and see the person doing it and was able to have the police dispatched.

I had to go down to the shop and missed the a**holes by about 5 minutes!

 

[TheForce]

Fascinating story, Claude. Bet Comcast would like to hear that one.

Well I just spent the morning dinking around with the ICS settings and after trying the two suggestions, I still could not get it to work.

I set the EVDO connection to ICS check box and then did a test computer connected to the same switch that the laptop with the EVDO was connected to and did a "repair" on the computer and it sensed the a new IP address. subnet mask was correct too but no internet service on the remote computer. I had disabled the DHCP in the router as well as pull the power off the cable modem to simulate a cable outage. I still had my entire lan connected.

The only variables I tried was manually setting up the ICS and then I tried to repeat setting up with the connection wizard. Neither worked but IP's were assigned by the laptop so I think that was working, just no internet connection.
Any hints as to what I may not have done correctly?

 

[snathanb]

On the test computer, run "ipconfig" from a command window and post the results.

 

[TheForce]

This is the ipconfig on the laptop with the EVDO card-

Ethernet adapter local area connection:
Connection specific DNS suffix:

IP address 192.168.0.1
subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway:


It also lists the PPP adapter 3G connection
Let me know if you need that.

The test computer connected to a switch that also has the laptop connected:

Connection specific DNS suffix: mshome.net

IP address: 192.168.0.227
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway: 192.168.0.1

 

[TheForce]

Just wondering if any here have actually done this with a Verizon EVDO card in a laptop like I described? I asked a rep at Verizon and he said their software does not permit ICS access.

That means my plan is SOL for now. They suggested I activate my USB EVDO adapter and plug it into any computer. With that unit, all I would need to do is install the software, let it update and good to go. I may go that route if my wife decides we need it for her computer. Right now she plans to use local ethernet and wifi for her travels. It's an added monthly cost I didn't want to spend, but may need to budget for it next year.

 

[bateau980]

Verizon's software will not allow you to connect to the EVDO Network. You can use the automatically created dial-up access that dials *777 to access the network. Try connecting to the EVDO Network before connecting the LAN connection.

You would probably need to bridge the connection in Windows to allow the ICS to take off.

 

[TheForce]

bateau980-

Yeah tried all that too but I stopped experimenting when the guy at Verizon told me they lock out ICS access, even for the USB device I have. I was thinking of activating that, though and then having it portable to different computers. That was their suggestion. All I would need to do is install the software on each computer. Next year, my wife will need this so we will probably do that. This way when she is at home and Comcast goes down, I'll be able to gram the EVDO USB dongle and plug it in and have access on my computer that needs to FTP some files.