A dual WAN router seems wonderful. Failover if one ISP goes down, awesome. Until the router itself goes down, then you lose both connections. Been there, done that -- NOT A GOOD SITUATION. As the previous poster said, buy two routers, two network cards, and hook them both up to your PC. XP/Vista will automatically switch over to the other connection when one dies (it can take a minute or two for windows to figure it out). I've never looked but I'd guess there are also programs out there that could disable the internet connection if it goes down.
Clark connect offers a product that uses uses both internet connections, you can load balance the connections if one is disrupted the other picks up the slack. I had a computer friend set it up, it runs through my old pc using linux and my trading pc is on the connected network. Also very safe and only $75 a year
Depending on Windows to do something automatically for you is something I would not want to do. 2 PCs, 2 connections, two routers, two totally independent setups. You can switch yourself in less than a minute of two of Vista. You can switch in seconds if needed.
This is really primitive. Maybe OK for 1998. Everything about a serious trading operation should be 1st class. Dual and multi-WAN routers have been around for many years... Most of the solid ones with real support... Are in the enterprise range of about $1,000. My $250 Hotbrick LB-2 has worked perfectly for 18 months... Though others have not been so lucky. There's this new-fangled thing called Google... That will give you 185,000 hits to peruse: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=router+"dual+wan"&btnG=Google+Search
This is really primitive. Maybe OK for 1998. Everything about a serious trading operation should be 1st class. True. But it's been working for me since 1978, right after me and Al Gore invented the internet. If you are on your machine you can switch the internet over in seconds or let automated software do it. The problem comes when you're not there.....and you're running an ATS. If you are talking real first class you're better off renting a dedicated server from an internet host (preferably one located close to Chicago if you trade futures).
SideShowBob, I agree and I add: and witha single dual -multi WAN router, if it goes down you're f**ed on both lines...