Knowledge Base Solution - How to set up ER605 with 2 WAN's
I had a lot of trouble getting the ER605 to work with 2 WAN's - in load balancing mode or in failover mode.
My trouble was that I had double NAT mode on both WAN's circuits as it wasn't easy/possible to set the ISP provided routers to 'modem only' mode
My set up is:
ISP router 1 --> ER605 (on 192.168.1.0/24)
ISP router 2 --> ER605 (on 192.168.8.0/24)
ER605 had main LAN as 192.168.101.0/24
NB. I am using the Omada Hardware Controller OC200
Setup: Settings --> Wired Networks --> Internet
WAN Mode:
WAN Ports: WAN and WAN/LAN1 checked, others unchecked.
Test 1
Load Balancing Mode
Application Optimized Routing: Checked
Link Backup: Not checked
Test 2
Failover Mode
Application Optimized Routing: Checked
Link Backup: Checked
Primary WAN: WAN
Backup WAN: WAN/LAN1
Backup Mode: Always Link Primary
Mode: Enable backup link when any primary WAN fails
All other settings set at default
Setting up the ER605 for both was fine and worked beautifully in both balancing and failover modes. I thought I'd nailed it.
But, the ER605 didn't notice when one of the lines went down and Internet access was lost on the LAN.
Solution:
Go to Devices --> ER605 click the row and a window opens on the right.
Navigate to Config and scroll down to Advanced, open the option.
In there, you will see an option call Echo Server.
The option is Auto by default.
From what I understand, it will go off looking for the DNS server on each WAN port and PING it.
In my case the DNS servers were set as 192.168.1.1 and 192.168.8.1 respectively (the address of my ISP's routers)
Both routers were still up, even when the internet went down so the PINGs will always suceed.
So, I set the option to Custom and put a well-known public DNS server in the field and the whole set-up worked. The ER605 now stops using the WAN where the PING doesn't respond. You still get a short loss of internet connectivity but it recovers fast.
There are many public DNS server, but I guess 8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4, 1.1.1.1, 1.0.0.1 are the most famous... Google 'public dns server ip' and make your choice.