On Dec 12, 2007 3:21 PM, Leo Mauler [email protected] wrote:
Basically I'd like to add a kind of "load balancing" router to the home network.
no, you want a failover. Load balancing is trickier and is not what you describe.
What I'd like to do is stick a Linux router between the cable modem and the existing wireless router. The new Linux router would take Internet access from the cable modem, have a regular dialup modem setup for emergency Dial-On-Demand, and then share out the Internet (from whatever source) to the home network. The modem wouldn't have a phone line plugged into it unless there was an actual cable outage, so there would be no risk of accidentally using up the prepaid minutes.
I want to have web and DNS caching to minimize bandwidth usage during dialup periods, though they wouldn't be a bad idea even with the cable Internet.
Sounds like it would be better to run your wireless router in simple WAP mode instead of having it do NAT, to simplify things, and install dnscache and squid or apache proxy on the router, all the time. And ntpd, and so on. Essentially you become your own ISP providing service to the rest of your own equipment, abstracting the details. DHCP can still live on the wireless router even in WAP mode, at least it can on my old netgear muffin.