We have 2 internet connections coming in to our building – neither are great (2 different routers from different providers). Are there technologies in Network Switches to support active switching or load balancing across the two connections? I know this maybe standard but I am not familiar with the names of the protocols to do this.
What we want to achieve is for the switch to automatically send data down connection A if connection B if it is not performing well, and vise-versa. Equally if both connections are performing for the load to be split between both connections? Crucially though, for it to do this without manual intervention all the time. And lastly if we can also set what type of traffic should be prioritised and/or by the device on the network (so for example people cabled computers take precedence over mobile phones).
I'm sure this is common knowledge but I need to start somewhere. Searching on Google just gives lot of manuals to various switches but I need that basic understanding first, so anything which could aid that learning would be helpful.
Best Answer
Yes, there are devices which can load balance and/or provide fail-over, but specific product and resource recommendations are explicitly off-topic here.
You will want to be very careful about load balancing. You will get out-of-order packet delivery and asymmetric routing, which can cause problems and actually slow your Internet speed. This will also break NAT unless you have a public IPv4 address which both ISPs will route. Getting your own block of IPv4 addresses can be costly, and it requires both ISPs to cooperate.
While it sounds like a good idea on the surface, this is not something you should attempt unless you really know what you are doing.