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UISP - EdgeRouter Dual-WAN Wizard Setup
UISP - EdgeRouter Dual-WAN Wizard Setup

Learn how to setup an EdgeRouter with two WAN connections, either as failover or load-balancing.

Alex Lowe avatar
Written by Alex Lowe
Updated over a week ago

All EdgeRouter models can support more than one WAN connection, which makes keeping your home or business online easier than ever. The process in getting two WAN connections working.

There are two ways to do this, either from a box fresh setup using the wizard, which will automatically configure everything for you or manually. If you wish to do this manually, see our guide here.

How to configure Dual-WAN

First log into your EdgeRouter and once you see the 'Basic Setup' window, click on 'Yes'. This will put the EdgeRouter into a default base config.

Next, click on the 'Load Balancing' option

On the left hand side, you will see the settings for both of the WAN connections. In this example, both will be left on DHCP but change them for your ISP, if you need to.

Next, under the 'Second Internet Port' section, enable the 'Only this interface if the other fails' check to make the failover feature work.

Scroll down, then click 'Apply'

Read the changes made, make sure they are correct then click on 'Apply Changes'

Finally click 'Reboot' then 'Yes I'm sure'. The changes will take effect and the EdgeRouter will reboot.

Verification

Once rebooted, make sure both WAN interfaces have an IP address assigned. If not, check your PPPoE credentials if using this method or renew the lease if using DHCP.

You can test to see if the failover works by unplugging one of the WAN connections and the traffic will route via WAN2 instead.

Failover vs Load Balancing

Failover

Failover is when two or more WANs are in use, but they are in standby mode. Day to day the internet traffic will go over your primary WAN connection, but in the event of an internet outage, the EdgeRouter, UXG Pro or another router will notice this and route traffic to the secondary WAN. Some routers have more than two WAN ports can do this with more.

To determine when the WAN is down or back up, devices will ping something on the Internet to check. For example, the UXG Pro pings ping.ui.com to check connectivity.

Load balancing

WIth load-balancing, two or more WAN connections are in use, but instead of one waiting the router will share traffic between them, this is generally used to get more bandwidth into the home or office.

HostiFi

HostiFi provides hosting for both Ubiquiti and TP-Link software-defined-networking (SDN) applications, with servers for UniFi, UISP and Omada. We also offer professional networking consulting, with HostiFi Pro.

If you run into any issues, send an email to support@hostifi.com or contact us via live chat.

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