Your business relies on its Internet connection. As Internet connectivity becomes more essential for your business, losing it, even for a brief period can be a real problem.
No Internet means no email, no web browsing and in many cases,
no work.
Every business is different, but if you rely on the Internet, hoping for the best is probably not the best plan. ISPs don't offer an 'SLA' (reliability agreement/guarantee) on ADSL lines and even if yours does, they can't actually guarantee that your line will always work, and can always be fixed immediately.
For example, with a Vigor 2820 ADSL Router/Firewall, your primary feed would be ADSL. In the event of that failing, the Vigor2820 will automatically switch over to one of the following:
- A second ADSL line, using a separate ADSL modem and different ISP .
- A 3G Cellular Data using a USB 3G modem (e.g. T-Mobile, Orange, Vodafone etc.)
- Analogue dial-up using a USB modem. Analogue dial-up is much slower than ADSL, but usable if your Internet connection is essential.
- A cable-modem service (e.g. VirginMedia)
- ISDN dialup (single or dual channel) ('S' models only)
- Any other Internet connection via an Ethernet cable
Once your primary (main) broadband service is restored, the router again automatically switches back to that. As well as failover mode, when both connections are available, the router can use both at the same time to provide more total Internet bandwidth to your network.
DrayTek router products can use the second internet connectivity simultaneously with your first for 'load balancing' which increases your total Internet bandwidth. Load balancing either automatically spreads your internet traffic across both connections, or you set rules for specific traffic or users to use specific connections.