Is dual wan possible? maybe with aggregation?

[pissenlit]

Hi There!
I'm new to pfsense...I'm working on setting it as firewall on my DSL connexion.
Currently, I have also a 4G dongle, connected to my LAN through a TPlink device.

my DSL gateway is 192.168.1.254
my 4G gateway is 192.168.1.253

Depending which one I want to use, I sometime change the gateway in my laptop settings (static parameters)

While introducing pfsense on my DSL, I wonder if it could worth to connect my 4G USB dongle directly to pfsense ? (it's a huawei e3372s, it seems to be in the supported list.)

so what do you think ? can I handle dual wan (DSL through ethernet / 4G by USB modem) in pfsense ?

if yes, can I still use it as today, I mean select which laptop uses 4G, which don't ?

2nd question: can I maybe aggregate both wan for best speed ?

[conor]

@pissenlit

If at all possible try to have your 4G connect via ethernet to your pfSense, dongles can be a pain in the ass and cause problems, better to learn how pfSense works for multi wan prior to messing with dongles. This is a very good starting point about what you want to do.

https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/routing/multi-wan.html

[akuma1x]

@pissenlit said in Is dual wan possible? maybe with aggregation?:

2nd question: can I maybe aggregate both wan for best speed ?

There is no capability in pfsense, and most other firewalls, to aggregate or bond multiple WAN connections together for "best speed". What is more typical is to either load-balance, or fail-over multiple internet connections. It's all explained in the multi-wan link above.

One of the few ways to do "bonding" is to have special hardware and software at both ends of your connection. This means you have to get your ISP involved, or another 3rd party, and they bond your connections together, then send the signal(s) down the wire(s) to you. In my brief research, it's expensive, and probably easier to get a faster single connection from your ISP, if available.

https://highspeedexperts.com/home-networking/channel-bonding-internet-connections/

Jeff

[JKnott]

@akuma1x said in Is dual wan possible? maybe with aggregation?:

@pissenlit said in Is dual wan possible? maybe with aggregation?:

2nd question: can I maybe aggregate both wan for best speed ?

There is no capability in pfsense, and most other firewalls, to aggregate or bond multiple WAN connections together for "best speed". What is more typical is to either load-balance, or fail-over multiple internet connections. It's all explained in the multi-wan link above.

One of the few ways to do "bonding" is to have special hardware and software at both ends of your connection. This means you have to get your ISP involved, or another 3rd party, and they bond your connections together, then send the signal(s) down the wire(s) to you. In my brief research, it's expensive, and probably easier to get a faster single connection from your ISP, if available.

https://highspeedexperts.com/home-networking/channel-bonding-internet-connections/

Jeff

One thing that's often used is a metric or cost. It's standard routing technique. On my notebook, running Linux, WiFi has a higher metric than Ethernet. However, in my case, both are usually connected to the same network. If there are different networks involved, the metric is ignored.

[stephenw10]

Try connecting the dongle to the pfSense box and see what is reported in the system log.

It is better to use something that connects via Ethernet though if you can. With USB dongles your options are low speed but good device handling or high speed with bad device handling deppending on how they are detected/configured.

Steve

[pissenlit]

Thank you for all answers!
I will read the multiwan documentation.

I would like to add that currently I do not have aggregation (I manually change the gateway on my laptop if I need 4g speed)
I can still continue this way if pfsense allows it.

Also, I use a tplink TL-MR3020 to connect my usb 4g modem to my ethernet lan.
I can still uses this device also with pfsense (so I have to handle only ethernet if usb is painfull, at least to start with and learn).

[stephenw10]

Yes, that will work. pfSense sees it as any other WAN connection then.

Steve