Topic: 2nd gateway on local network

[russs]

Hi Guys,

it's been a long time since I posted on the Forums, our SME server works so well there is rarely a reason too!!

But now I am having a little difficulty and would appreciate any advice.

We have now added a second broadband router to our network to share the load and add a little fault tolerance to our growing network. This is on a new broadband line from a different ISP to the first router.
Both our 1st and 2nd router has a static internet IP address pointing to it, internally they are both on our local network as 192.168.0.1 (1st router) and 192.168.0.2 (2nd new router). The SME is on our local network too.

The trouble is, although I have been pointing various ports through my first router (192.168.0.1) at the SME server for many years successfully I can not get this to work with my new second router!

This issue may be nothing at all to do with the SME server itself but though I'd check with you Guys.

So, on my new router I have tried to point http (80) to the local SME server just as I do on my first router but when I query the domain I wish to point to through a browser from the outside it justs hangs for ages and eventually times out.

From the outside world I can resolve DNS to my 2nd router using the domain name so I know I'm going to the right place with the address.
I then tried pointing port 80 to another internal server through the new router and this works perfectly using the domain name from outside, up pops the web page on this other server with no problem.
So it seems to be something between the router and the SME. I can use the new router to access the Internet from a local machine too and use the interface on the router to ping the SME server.

I have an extremely vague idea that this may be firewall or route/gateway related on the SME itself, is it just that the SME server needs the new router listed somewhere, perhaps in IPtables to allow it access? Or am I just talking nonsense here?!


Any help much appreciated Guys.

Russ

[CharlieBrady]

The trouble is, although I have been pointing various ports through my first router (192.168.0.1) at the SME server for many years successfully I can not get this to work with my new second router!

Yep, that's not going to work. The default route on your SME server will send all packets bound for Internet addresses to your first router. So packets are coming to your second router, being port-forwarded to SME, then return packets are being generated, going to your first router, which drops them in its firewall code (since it can't NAT them as it didn't see the inbound packet).

[Stefano]

Russ, if you need load balancing on wan side, you have to use something like pfsense in front of your lan.

HTH

[russs]

Hi Guys,

thanks for the quick answer.

To be honest, forgot to mention, I would be happy to route all outside traffic to and from the SME through this new router. I intend to just use the first router for internal Users Internet access anyway.

How would I achieve this please?

Thanks

[russs]

Thanks Stefano,

It's really due to the fact we have been having some issues with our first router so would like to be able to redirect our Users out through the second new router in an emergency. Also that we are now having increased outside access to our internal Web server so wanted to use the second router exclusively for this to avoid overloading the first router.

I'm not clever enough for anything that flashy!!

Thanks for advice

[CharlieBrady]

How would I achieve this please?

Change the default route, via option 2 in the admin console.

Obviously you'd also need to change your DNS records, and set up port forwardings, etc.

[russs]

Thanks Guys

I'll give it a go.