Re: Two DSL lines - Cisco 1811 Router and Exchange MX Records Setu

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Chuckak <Chuckak@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
You are correct there will be two WAN interfaces via the DSL
lines/modems. The netgear will be replaced with the Cisco 1811 which
has a full firewall along with the dual WAN ethernet interfaces.
My main question is how to handle the two interfaces to the WAN with
Exchange and the whole MX record part.
I will work the Cisco forums to figure out the load
balancing/failover part.

OK, sounds good. My advice re the MX records should work for you.



Chuckak <Chuckak@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I currently have a single DSL line with static IP connected to a
netgear VPN router and a single NIC SBS 2003 server. I just
converted Exchange to handle mail directly and had the ISP point the
MX record to my server's internet IP address. Exchange is working
fine so far.
We occasionaly have a DSL line go down so I have added a second DSL
line.
I have purchased a Cisco 1811 router that has two DSL line
capability.

Correction - I think you mean it has two WAN interfaces (Ethernet) -
it shouldn't care that they're DSL. You have two DSL modems
now...they'll connect to each WAN interface.

How do I configure the Cisco 1811 to properly fail over to the
secondary DSL line or preferably load balance.

Sorry, that's really beyond the scope of a newsgroup post. If the
Cisco didn't come with sufficient documentation, you'll need to call
them or get someone in to help you. Personally, although I think
Cisco kit is great, I'd probably be inclined to return it, because
it's pricy and I'm not sure how you'll be able to use this with your
Netgear device in the picture. Plus, your Netgear really isn't
sufficient protection anyway. I'd personally recommend a SonicWALL
running EnhancedOS, which can easily do load balancing and failover
as well as give you decent firewall protection.

And how do I handle the MX record at the ISP? Or is this all
handled in the router setup?

No - your router knows nothing about this sort of thing. MX records
are handled by whomever hosts your public DNS. If this is your ISP,
then it's them (I don't like having my domains hosted by ISPs as
they aren't generally very good at it, and it's uncommon to find one
that lets you manage the stuff yourself via a web-based control
panel).


If the primary DSL line fails now I assume my incoming mail will
die.

Your senders will retry delivery for 3, 5 days, on average - they'll
ju

My ISP does not seem to be of any help here?

In your public DNS, presuming you've got the A record

blah.mydomain.com (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx)

right now, and it's set as your primary MX record (e.g., preference
10), set up another A record

blah2.mydomain.com (xxx.xxx.xxx.yyy)

and set it as your secondary MX record (e.g., preference 20)



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