load balancing on tz400

Terry

i have x1 as a dsl at 3mbs( best case), static IP for controlling a remote printer . X2 is business class fiberoptic at extreme speed.

I have load balance set as ratio 99% to x2 and 1% to x1. I am experiencing terrible internet speeds when several people at work are , well, working.

Is there a better way to configure the load balance?

i saw basic failover, round robin, spillover, ratio.

to clarify on x1: we remote from customer facility click print. the print command goes over internet to our dsl static IP through a specific port to the printer. That is the only use of x1, except maybe as last ditch effort incase fiber optic dies.

TKWITS

@Terry in your case id use basic failover with pre-emption and probing.

Basically you set the faster interface (X2) as the highest in the interface ordering in the load balancing group. Then edit the individual interfaces in the group to enable Logical/probe Monitoring. I always use 'probe succeeds when both primary and alternate target respond' for thorough probing. Set the Primary probe to your interface default gateway or ISPs DNS server, and set the Alternate to a public DNS server (e.g. Google's 8.8.4.4).

Once probing starts you'll see the interfaces LB Status and 'Target' status, which will show available and alive respectively.

With this configuration the DSL circuit will only be used if the fiber circuit is completely down.

Now why you have a DSL circuit for printing is another matter altogether...

Hope that helps.

Saravanan

Hi @TERRY,

Thank you for visiting SonicWall Community.

As per your scenario, the X1 interface bandwidth is just used 1% and rest all traffics sent via X2 as it is used 99%. Please share your requirement for Load Balancing (LB) and can provide you with necessary suggestions on LB.

Terry

honestly, I dont know if i am using the correct way for the setup.

if it was up to me, I would have the connection at X1 solely for the printer incoming traffic. I am not a sonicwall trained person. I only saw my now-retired sonicwall technician configure things about 10 years ago.

I do not know the difference on the differences between basic failover , roundrobbin, spill over, etc.

I set it to 99% for X2 and 1% for X1 and the internet seems ok-ish today. But this seems like a really bad way to configure things because there is no programmed logic to it.

ii can only say i have fiber optic business grade ISP on X2 and dsl at 3mbs on X1. I feel there is a better configuration .

thank you

Saravanan

Hi @Terry,

Please take a look at the below web-link for load balancing differences.

http://help.sonicwall.com/help/sw/eng/7634/7/2/0/content/Policies_Network_FailoverLB_Snwls.htm

If I were at your place, I would select the load balancing type based on the ISP offered speed. For example, lets say X1 ISP offers 50 Mbps and X2 offers 100 Mbps. I'll have X1 to be 25% and X2 as 75% in Ratio based LB.

Please let us know if there are further questions or clarifications.

Terry

https://community.sonicwall.com/technology-and-support/discussion/comment/6743#Comment_6743

i will try this. but i have a question:

when i click print from remote location, it sends the print command to the static ip of x1 (dsl). Will x1 still allow this to happen if i configure the way you recommend?

yeah... dsl for printer... very long sad story at least we are away from DIAL-UP finally. bottom line is it is a legacy thing and to change it requires more money and effort than humanly recommended.

TKWITS

@Terry failover configuration does not affect inbound traffic to a specific IP.