How to Increase Bandwidth With Two or More Routers

A default gateway is used to send all traffic to that is not otherwise addressed in the routing table.

Routers use routing to deliver packets to their destination. A router will have a routing table that instructs it where to send packets to certain network addresses. If a router is connected to the Internet, it requires a "default" route, also known as a "last resort," that all other traffic is sent to. By using multiple default routes, a router can load balance or share bandwidth between multiple connections.

Things You'll Need

• 3 routers
• 2 Internet connections

Instructions

1. Configure your first router to act as the gateway for your clients. This router will receive all packets from all the clients on the local area network.

2. Configure the second router to act as the first route out to its Internet connection. Ensure that it is configured with a local network that is separate from the first router.

3. Configure the third router to act as the second route out to its Internet connection. This router will also require a separate network address than the other routers. You will now have three routers, all configured with different network addresses.

4. Configure two static routes on the first router, one route to the second router and the other route to the third router. You will now have two static routes with the same metric. When the first router receives a packet, it will load balance between the two routers and, therefore, increase the bandwidth and also the resilience if one of the routers were to fail.

Tips & Warnings

• Some routers support routing protocols such as RIP, OSPF and EIGRP, which can help to manage multiple routes and provide better load balancing algorithms.

References

• Cisco Systems: Configuring a Gateway of Last Resort Using IP Commands

Resources

• NIL; The OSPF Default Mysteries; Ivan Pepelnjak