Pipeline 50 and DNS with multiple ISPs
Aidan Killian
I have several ISPs, primarily Demon, but I also use Freeserve
(off-peak Surftime) and OneTel. I do this to minimise the size of my
BT bill.
This was fine with Windows DUN, because each connectoid managed
its own DNS settings. Now that I have a small network with a Pipeline it
is not practical to change network card DNS settings depending on the
time of day (it is bad enough having to change the Pipeline setup).
My question, is it possible to get the Pipeline to act as a
proxy for the appropriate DNS server?
The connection->IPoptions does have DNS settings but, as far as
I can see, these are for incoming connections rather than outgoing.
Any advice (even to the negative, as I am forever picking
through
Lucent manuals) appreciated.
Regards,
Aidan Killian
John Ockelford
<ai...@sgml.demon.co.uk> wrote:
...
> My question, is it possible to get the Pipeline to act as a
>proxy for the appropriate DNS server?
...
Hi Aidan
This is not a definitive answer (I have 25FX not 50), more a train of
thought that might help.
Your problem is not which DNS to use, but which *connection* to use.
True, this may not be the most efficient way, but as long as they
don't deny lookups by external addresses, should not be a problem.
(Test this by forcing manual connections - disable automatic - to each
ISP, and checking if DNS still works.)
If so, then your problem is how to control which connection is used.
Does the 50 have an RTC? If so, are there control settings for the
profiles which permit activation only at particular times? Until
someone can help me out with routing software for the 25FX (Lucent
can't help) I am using a DI1132 which offers that control. (WARNING:
learn from my bitter experiences and don't buy D-Link! Although it
works fine as a router, the last two years rankle, and I would prefer
to be looking at the Pipeline again.)
Failing that (and assuming the DNS check worked) you need some way of
telling the 50 which profile to make active. Can you program? Write
a short bit of code where clicking on one of three buttons will telnet
to the 50 and send the appropriate sequence to activate one profile,
and disable the others. I had to write such code to control the
DI1132 when using it as a bridge.
Addendum to DNS: if not permitted when connecting through another ISP,
use one from each, so if 1 is denied, will try 2nd ISP or 3rd ISP.
This will break if primary DNS goes down, though.
HTH
John Ockelford
Aidan Killian
through trial and error I came to use what you are suggesting.
Yes, routing to the correct connection was my real problem. I ended
up putting a fake IP address on the connection's gateway and putting
the same fake IP address in the default route.
I tried putting the same fake IP address (which is overwritten
at connection time) in all my connection profiles, and it seemed to
work for every one except Demon.
This was complicated/simplified by the fact that I am using
NAT. I say simplified because the NAT setup requires a connection name
it seems to supersede routing.
Anyway it works (although I mostly have it set to Freeserve
Surftime). I manually modify the settings using telnet; I would love
to have a script to do this automatically on a timer; might write it
in Java some time.
Thanks,
Aidan Killian