Need some advice here. I currently operate 2 computers connected with a wired D-Link router over cable. What I'm wanting to do is hook up AT&T Yahoo DSL in a way that when/if cable goes out, I switch over to DSL, or vice versa. So I jumped out the other day and subscribed to AT&T DSL because the guy told me I could connect wirelessly. I thought worst case scenario was that I could continue to use my cable, but turn on the DSL when/if my cable goes out. Maybe my idea would work....sounds like I need some type of device though so that my computers can communicate with the wireless modem from AT&T. Anyone know anything about this? Meanwhile though, I read a thread here about Dual Wan Routers. From what I understand of the thread, I could in theory be connected to both cable and DSL by using a dual wan router like Hotbrick. However, if I went this way, could I still use the wireless modem from ATT, or would I need to use their other modem? So here are my questions: 1) Is the dual wan router the best option to accomplish what I'm trying to do? 2) To use the dual wan router, do I run both cable and DSL into the router, and then hook up my D-Link router to the dual wan router? 3) Can I use the wireless modem from ATT or do I need the wired version? Thanks for any information. OldTrader
Oldtrader, hope you have been well.. Here is my advice.. 1. The device provided by ATT is most likely a dsl modem/wireless access point. You already have cable running from the wall to a cable modem to your computer. 2. You are correct you will need either a usb wireless card using the same standard as your ATT modem wireless. this could be 802.11 b,g,ect.. just make sure they are identical. 3. On a dropped connection on the modem, you will be able to use the wireless access on att as redundancy. One thing to keep in mind though is by only using a wireless card, the redundancy is only a failsafe, and the entire time you are up, your ATT connection is not being utilized. This could be visa versa. 4. The advantage of dual wan routers is that if you select the right one, they would be able to perform something called load balancing. In layman terms its being able to use both connections at once. If this is the case, then return the wireless dsl modem for a regular one, and run cat 5 from both sources to a dual wan router. 5. You can also leave things the way they are, because to an extent you do have redundancy once you get the wireless card to talk from the computer to the ATT dsl modem/access point. The rest is semantics. -Good luck
About the pros/cons to use a single dual wan router to manage 2 internet connections, read also the post by late apex here: http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=83550&perpage=6&pagenumber=6