[ILUG] RE: Suggestions for DSL routers

[Paschal Nee]

What exactly are the Zyxel boxes doing?  One or all of:
- Terminating the DSL connection
- Creating the VPN
- Splitting the load over the DSL VPN and the LL (what is an LL when
it's at home?).   How is the splitting being done i.e. only certain
src/dest IP addresses go over VPN or a more thorough setup where the
load is even spread across the two paths.

DSL termination points are ten a penny (although you may not want an
extra box in the mix)
If you're just looking for two boxes that will create a site to site
VPN then a lot of mid range firewalls can do this e.g.
http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=3NXN . GUI
configuration so any non priest could do it.
The load splitting may be more complicated depending on how you want it done.

Paschal.

> I have two customer sites which are linked via an LL (or tow) but
> they also have a VPN l;ink over DSL to share the load. The VPN is set
> up using two Zyxel routers which were remarkably cheap, and have done
> a trojan job, once the arcane configuration was finished (not
> possible using only the docs - assistance from vendor priesthood was
> required).
>
> So, spares are not available, and doubtless the necessary priestly
> knowledge would be hard to get now, given the age of the boxes. So,
> looking for suggestions for replacements. Eitehr end of the link has
> a mixture of Linux and Netware servers and Windows clients, but I
> suppose that's academic (apart from being a miserable attempt to make
> this be slightly on-topic).
>
> Anything would be considered. Cost is a factor, but not an overriding
> one. Stability, and availability of spares, and ability to configure
> without a priest would all be important.
>
>
>
> Niall
>
>