Shopping guide for Internet cafe-level multi-WAN router products for Small Enterprises

Multi-Wan port router technology:

At present, the Internet has been deeply integrated into our lives. Broadband routers are the most widely used Internet access tools for common household users and small and medium-sized enterprises. We all know that the earliest Broadband Router solution is IP sharing, that is, to allow multiple terminals in the internal network to share a broadband egress, the core technical application is the simple NAT-network address translation function. Therefore, the old-fashioned Broadband Router is also called an IP sharing device ".

As your network application requirements increase, NAT alone is not enough. In particular, users have urgent requirements on network security and other functions to ensure the safe and smooth operation of the network. The design of broadband routers is increasingly complicated, including FIREWALL, DMZ, and virtual servers, as broadband routers have embarked on a multi-functional road, various SOHO router products have emerged.

Now, the other development trend is becoming more and more obvious. Broadband routers are gradually coming out of SOHO and home applications, and are selected by the majority of enterprises as networking devices for medium-scale networks, in this environment, enterprise users impose more complex functional requirements on Broadband routers, such as faster speed, more secure, manageable, and diversified application modes. As a result, broadband routers are showing a diverse development trend. A wide variety of products with different performance constitute the rapidly growing SMB Broadband Router market.

Among them, the Broadband Router with multiple WAN ports is such a special SMB Product Series. It has changed the "one-to-many" broadband access method into a "many-to-many" method, fully satisfying the desire of enterprise users to own more bandwidth at no cost. This type of router allows users to share 2-4 broadband external lines in a LAN, without dividing the internal network into several independent parts based on the number of WAN ports. In fact, its working mechanism is to distribute all kinds of request data in the LAN to different broadband outlets based on the preset load balancing policy, the requested data is then returned from the egress, so as to achieve intelligent dynamic information delivery. Since Session requests in Lan are distributed and continuously distributed, after allocation, it seems to be like expanding the egress bandwidth of the entire LAN, which doubles the bandwidth.

Product Model	Product rating	Reference price
TL-R480 +	Features: TP-LINK multi-Wan port routing special features Advantage: reasonable cost and practical functions	24XX RMB
TL-R488	Features: TP-LINK multi-Wan port routing special features Advantage: it has four WAN ports and can be used for high-speed networking.	29XX RMB
AF420 +	Features: many features are left for managers to define and can be flexibly configured Advantage: Powerful and practical	28XX RMB
NS-2000	Features: dynamically adjusts load balancing and customizes the flow of packets Advantage: Powerful and practical	26XX RMB
HB-4204	Feature: provides priority policies Advantage: complete functions and affordable prices	23XX RMB

Multi-Wan port broadband routers are technically complex and require high hardware processing capabilities. The processing of Multi-WAN ports is not a standard network protocol, and there are no standards to follow. It is just an implementation strategy. Therefore, due to different technical capabilities and on-site debugging environments, the similar products of different manufacturers vary greatly. To achieve high-speed data packet distribution and collection, complex algorithms must be constantly optimized to ensure accuracy, efficiency, and adaptability. Therefore, the design engineer's embedded software requires a high level of skill.

At the same time, the multi-Wan port router must use a high-speed CPU and a large-capacity storage device, otherwise it is not competent for parsing each IP packet. The low-speed CPU processing capability is insufficient, which may cause the internal software system to crash, and the router has to crash frequently. According to the analysis of practical results, vrouters with a CPU rate of more than 150 Mips can basically adapt to the working intensity requirements of Multi-Wan Port Routers, and vrouters with a CPU of less than MB, in many environments, the probability of dead-end failures is extremely high, and it seems a little too short to use.

The load balancing mechanism of a Multi-WAN port router is not available for a single WAN port, and is also the most special application mode for multiple WAN ports. Common Server Load balancer mechanisms include Session, Session, Traffic, and manual Server Load balancer.

In addition, the multi-Wan port router can also act as line backup. Once a broadband line fails, the other line will assume the data requests of all users, this reinforces the entire network system and avoids catastrophic consequences caused by network egress paralysis. Especially for operational Internet cafes, line faults not only cause financial losses, but also cause serious consequences of customer loss, which cannot be borne by Internet cafe owners. Similarly, for some enterprises with relatively high informatization level, the daily dependence on the network system is heavy, and the office business network must be unable to leave. A network system without backup also has a huge potential risk. Therefore, choosing a vro with multiple WAN ports is a wise way for managers to prevent them from happening.

Network Topology

To sum up, using a multi-WAN router has the following three benefits:

1. Increase the egress bandwidth. Taking TP-LINK's dual WAN port router TL-R480 + as an example, using two ADSL or Ethernet broadband lines, because the two WAN ports can be load balancing, therefore, the total egress bandwidth is doubled to the original one. At present, both ADSL and 10 M Ethernet bandwidth have very low monthly subscription fees, and the costs of applying for more bandwidth are limited, bandwidth grows exponentially with limited costs, which can be achieved for larger networks.

2. Line backup. Using a multi-Wan port router, applying for multiple lines and using multiple Modem, these lines can also be of different carriers, such as China Telecom's ADSL and 10 M Ethernet of China Netcom, when an ISP, cable, or Modem fails, the data traffic will be re-allocated to a non-Faulty port, and the entire network will not be interrupted.

3. Provide more content services. Different ISPs provide different game, chat, video-on-demand, and other services. These different content services are placed on the ISP Server. to enjoy these services, you must apply for corresponding ISP access. To provide multi-ISP content services, you must apply for multi-ISP access and use a multi-Wan port router.

Related Product recommendations:

TP-LINK TL-R480 +/TL-R488 Broadband Router

TL-R480 +

TL-R488

TL-R480 + is a dual-WAN port for High Performance Broadband Router. The TL-R488 has four WAN ports that allow four incoming lines. The main difference between TL-R488 and TL-R480 + is that on this port, the TL-R488 has 4 WAN interfaces and 1 LAN interface, the TL-R480 + has 2 WAN interfaces and 3 LAN interfaces. In terms of performance, the two are basically the same, taking TL-R480 + as an example, the typical load of 150 ~ 250 sets, compared with the early launch of the TL-R480, is unique in the high speed based on the dual WAN port, can be directly connected to two incoming lines, multiply the egress bandwidth, and can connect to different ISP, enjoy more services. With a dynamic and automatic load balancing policy, you can perform backup and load balancing without manual intervention. Automatic line fault shielding/recovery. Traffic is automatically re-allocated when a fault occurs.

Compared with other brands, TP-LINK multi-Wan port router has the following advantages:

1. The load balancing policy of TP-LINK is a dynamic automatic traffic allocation policy based on the bandwidth ratio, which does not require the user to understand the technology, think about the strategy, there is no configuration option of the load balancing policy on the user interface, everything is automatically completed by the router, and when the WAN port changes, such as line failure and recovery) will be automatically adjusted to the most reasonable state, do not interrupt the work of the router, or manually adjust.

2. automatic backup policy. Generally, a multi-Wan port router has a backup policy option or backup mode on the configuration interface.) Which of the following is the main line must be specified, which is the backup line? Normally, only the main line works. The backup line is enabled only when the main line fails. TP-LINK multi-Wan port router adopts automatic adaptive backup policy, and combined with load balancing policy can achieve seamless backup.

In addition, the TP-LINK multi-WAN port router has the following three special features, that is, allow each WAN port to enable or disable the default full enable) you can specify a priority channel by source IP address and a channel by destination IP address.

Market guidance price: TL-R480 + 24XX yuan TL-R488 29XX yuan

GOONE AF420 + dual-WAN port Broadband Router

AF420 + dual-WAN port Broadband Router 166 m cpu processor provides the ability to connect two broadband lines at the same time, not only can achieve mutual support between broadband lines, the load balancing mode of two lines can be achieved. The network transmission efficiency can be adjusted to the optimal through the built-in multiple load balancing modes: Tx, Rx Byte, Packet Byte, and Session, it is suitable for small and medium-sized enterprises, Internet cafes, and high-traffic load balancing broadband routers!

AF420 +

Compared with the TP-LINK multi-Wan port router in addition to the automatic backup function, AF420 + many of the features left to managers to define, such as custom load balancing ratio, the administrator needs to provide the two bandwidths, whether to use load balancing or mutual backup, and specify the traffic ratio of WAN1 & WAN2 to 50 ~ 50%, 70 ~ 30%; custom three load balancing mechanisms, manually specify the Protocol exclusive line, specify the IP exclusive line. Of course, AF420 + is also easy to handle. This router supports the ARP Proxy function and does not need to change the IP configuration of the original PC Client, so that the original network operating architecture can be maintained, allows the original valid IP address location on the LAN end to simulate the virtual IP address location, and the valid IP address CIDR Block of the WAN is the same group of IP address CIDR blocks. In addition, AF420 + supports the standard Routing mode, and the NAT Function can be disabled to become the general standard LAN Routing mode (Pure Routing), which can be used as a general 2 LAN Routing router.

Market guidance price: 28XX RMB

NASI nasis NS-2000 dual WAN port Broadband Router

NS-2000 uses high-speed ARM-9 168 MHz CPU, positioning in the medium scale network environment, there are two 10/100 WAN port, Four 10/100 LAN port, from the functional perspective of the NS-2000 and AF420 + equivalent, NS-2000 also provides the ability to connect two broadband lines at the same time, such as ADSL, ADSL PPPoE timing system, Cable Modem, leased line Ethernet, etc., can also achieve mutual support of broadband lines, and load balancing of two lines: You can adjust the network transmission efficiency to the optimization through multiple built-in Load Balancing modes: Tx/Rx Byte/Packet Byte/Session/percentage, it is a Broadband Router suitable for medium and small enterprises and load balancing with large traffic. But the NS-2000 body itself has a built-in 4 Port 10/100 Mbps Auto MDX/MDI Switch type hub, automatic detection using jumper or non jumper function, it is favored by general enterprises or high-order sohoans and users who need backup lines.

NS-2000

AF420 + has two distinctive functions. First, the Server Load balancer can be automatically adjusted along with the line, available Load Balancing combinations can be based on the number of transmitted/received bytes, the number of transmitted and received packets, the number of established connections in the network, the WAN port allocated based on the specified communication protocol, based on the number of computer connections in the network and the actual bandwidth ratio of WAN1 and WAN2, in addition, you can customize the Packet Flow Direction-Policy Routing (for example, outbound Internet from WAN1 or WAN2) according to different service ports (such as WWW and FTP ).

Market guidance price: 26XX RMB

Fixed Network dual-WAN port Broadband Router HB-4204

The HARDLINK HB-4204 has 2 10/100 Mbps RJ-45 WAN interfaces and 4 10/100 Mbps RJ-45LAN interfaces. Supports two adsl modem instances at the same time, and supports a maximum of 253 Internet connection users at dual-channel bandwidth rates to provide high-performance network connections. In the load balancing mechanism, HB-4204 only provides three common load balancing types support Load Balancing by byte, packet, Session ), however, the administrator can still make the most reasonable Server Load balancer configuration based on network usage.

HB-4204

In addition to allowing users to share two broadband perimeter lines and automatic backups within a LAN, the priority policy it provides is worth mentioning, HB-4204 supports QoS, you can set the priority of data accessing the INTERNET to meet the transmission performance requirements of important applications. The priority policy can be set based on parameters such as the data source or target IP address, source or target MAC address, and service type. In addition, some common router functions such as static routing, VPN support, and port scanning, packet filtering, URL blocking and other firewall function HB-4204 is also doing well. Last to say is the recent HB-4204 from the original 3000 yuan to 2300 yuan, let the range of up to 700, this price is very attractive to the operation of Internet cafes, after all, the investment of 2300 yuan can bring the benefits of exponentially increasing bandwidth and automatic backup!

Market guidance price: 23XX RMB

Summary:

For some enterprises and Internet operators with relatively high informatization levels, the dependence on network systems is growing, and the Business Network must be unable to leave, regardless of the cost or the quality of broadband services, as well as network security backup, it is wise to choose a multi-Wan port router to expand the network. Xinxiang multi-Wan port Broadband Router function is perfect, TP-LINK multi-Wan port router in intelligent management is very good, fixed network HB-4204 price advantage, NASS's NS-2000 and GOONE AF420 + provide more room for managers in terms of function configuration, helping to find the best running state in combination with their own business.