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2 separate broadband lines

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NAZty

New Around Here
Hi All,

I’m currently with BT (fibre 300) and will be moving into my parents house soon. I’m in contract with BT so can’t cancel and at my parents house they have Virgin (300) already installed.

I was wondering what is the best way to utilise both connections?

The Virgin line is installed downstairs and their super hub is in modem only mode as my parents have an Asus 86U router which services the whole house.

I was thinking of installing the BT line upstairs and then connecting my Asus 86U router (I also own one) to that and using the BT line to service upstairs and then the Virgin line can service downstairs. If I was to go down this route what’s the best way to configure them so that you can seamlessly switch between the 2 while moving between upstairs/downstairs?

Is there something better I could do with the 2 connections? I have no need for 2 lines but I can’t cancel so makes sense to utilise it while I’m paying for it.

Thanks
 
I doubt whether it's possible for you to have "seamless" switching between routers. It's difficult enough trying to achieve that with access points that are connected to the same router, even when that router has "smart connect". With two separate internet routers you'd have all those problems in addition to the problem of breaking any active connections to web sites when switching over. That probably wouldn't be an issue for regular web browsing but it would be for something like WiFi calling.

 
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If one 86U is plenty of coverage, wireless clients may see no reason to roam to another network.

If you do need more coverage, it may be better to add the second 86U as an AiMesh node.

If you proceed to install the second ISP, you could use it for wired clients only(?). If the first ISP/network goes down, you could switch the AiMesh to the second ISP.

Can you cancel the Virgin service until the BT service expires?

OE
 
Thanks for the replies. The AiMesh idea sounds good. I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing any tricks and could think of no better place to ask than here :)

Unfortunately can’t cancel Virgin as that is under contract too.
 
Maybe get a router with two WAN ports that supports WAN bonding? That way you can utilise both connections for an overall faster internet connection.
 
Maybe get a router with two WAN ports that supports WAN bonding? That way you can utilise both connections for an overall faster internet connection.
Now this sounds like a great idea! Any disadvantages to this?

Any dual WAN routers you’d recommend?
 
Now this sounds like a great idea! Any disadvantages to this?

Any dual WAN routers you’d recommend?
The disadvantage would be that depending on the ISPs routing, you might end up getting weird latency issues. There might be some weird routing issues in some cases as well.

Sadly I don't have any great hardware suggestions, but if you're going to use your Asus router for WiFi, maybe look at an Ubiquiti edgerouter lite or something from DrayTek.
 

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