Broadband backup ABCs

The Internet makes telework possible and small or remote offices productive. Fast Internet connections erase the feeling of isolation from company workflow, and when organized correctly, you can hardly tell the difference between working in a cubicle in the office and a home office.

When your Internet connection stops, however, you may as well be home with the flu. At least with the flu, you'd have an excuse for not getting any work done. If you run your small business communications via the Internet, losing your connection hangs an "Out of Business" sign on your electronic door.

Now that recent studies show more than 90% of U.S. households have access to broadband service, you may be able to justify the cost of two dedicated broadband connections from different DSL and/or cable providers. If one drops out, the other one keeps you connected.

Nexland's new Pro800turbo router with two broadband modem ports links your office with two broadband providers at one time. The device also includes a serial port for linking to a dial-up or ISDN modem. My home office currently runs on AT&T cable, replacing a much slower and more expensive DSL connection. Since the cable speed is 10 times faster, I set the AT&T cable as the primary link and the DSL as the backup. Nexland's Pro800turbo linked to the AT&T cable immediately, but the DSL link required some digging into the manual to find the right combination of IP addresses and network settings.

Once configured and running, I turned off the AT&T modem. It took about 45 seconds for the Nexland to convince the DSL line to pick up the connection. (Connecting via analog will take a couple of minutes.) When you realize that large companies spend tens of thousands of dollars for dual-link routers and load balancing equipment, seeing a $399 router provide fairly quick fail-over connections is impressive.

If your broadband links are roughly equal in speed, the Nexland Pro800turbo also provides load-balancing. Packets are interleaved between the two different connections giving you more throughput. You can configure a ratio of traffic for one link to the other, and cleverly choose which link always connects to your e-mail server.

However, problems with dual connections include handling IP addresses for inbound servers and connecting to outsourced e-mail servers. When your ISP provides your e-mail host, it limits who can send e-mail out through the server to only those clients on its network. This eliminates what's called an "open relay" mail server, which forwards mail from anyone and any network, a method used by spammers. So if you have your e-mail host on Network A and try to connect to it via Network B, you get treated like a spammer and blocked. Nexland remedies this by offering to send all e-mail traffic through one provider, a nice touch configured with one click of the Web-based administration utility.

Nexland includes the warning, as it should, that you should use two different service providers. Redundancy only comes with two completely different providers giving you different wiring plants and routing points upstream between you and the Internet.

There are other ways to provide redundancy, too, but none work as quickly or as automatically as the Nexland Pro800turbo. Order the DSL and cable modems from your providers, then connect the faster service to your single-connection SOHO router. When that service drops, plug your router into the other service's modem, and reboot your modem, your router, and your computers.

Some other SOHO routers also support dial-up modems for backup. Check with your broadband provider to get the dial-up number for your area, and test it through your router. It will be slow, but it will be there. You should even check out dialing up with your internal modem, just in case.

If you can't afford dual-broadband links or they aren't available in your area, at least check out your dial-up options before disaster strikes.

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