TP-Link TL-R480T+ Load Balance Broadband Router

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Rs. 4250 on Amazon today

This arrived today and seems to be working fine. Though I realized the mistake soon enough. Ethernet ports in the front means that it is not really suited for home use. Designed for server racks. I have somehow managed to fit it under the table where it is not causing much of a mess. Still... Consider the lower end model (TP-Link TL-R470T+) which is probably a better model for home use.

I have configured it to switch from Excitel to Airtel when Excitel drops. If I take the Excitel cable out, switchover is instant. I have not any chance to see how long it takes when Excitel disappears from the backend. Nishant has the R470 model and he told me that it takes less than 10 seconds. Would post when I experience a downtime while I am sitting on the PC.

User interface of the load balancer backend is simple to understand. Performance seems to be good too. One major issue is that the ethernet ports are not gigabit so if your ISP is offering you 100mbps+ connectivity, these are not going to work for you. So this model is definitely not future proof.

 

[kiranramrathod]

impressively, your firmware is from august 2016. mine is from may 2015. so they did update the software last year but the issues still remain.

firmware for your load balancer is also available. Check it out. Sorry, its available for V8 and yours is V7.0

 

[Sushubh]

Download for TL-R480T+ - TP-Link

Nope :-D

 

[kiranramrathod]

Sorry, its available for V8 and yours is V7.0

 

[kiranramrathod]

this device is shit. i had to switch to load balancing feature myself because failover does not work well. in my case, it was not switching back to primary connection from secondary connection when primary connection came back online. as a result, it kept on consuming data from the second connection.

even on load balancer mode, it tends to not handle balancing properly if one of the connection goes down for a few seconds. as a result i end up with dead internet for a few seconds. but not as big of a problem as the one on failover setting.

Hello Sushubh,

Thank you for all your help and guidance.

I have found out something. Can you please try it at your end and let me know if it works for you or not.

The failover system of TP-Link load balancer works properly when we disconnect the ISP ethernet cable from the load balancer but it doesn't work when the internet stops working from the ISP side.

There is a setting in the tp-link load balancer that allows all the WAN's to ping the web but by default, it's in Auto mode. When it's in Auto mode it doesn't work properly. So, we need to put it in Manual mode and the setting will look like this. Make sure you do it for all the WAN connections. Now, when the load balancer is not able to ping the web (8.8.8.8) via the primary ISP it will failover to the secondary ISP automatically.

I heard that the tp-link load balancer has a delay mechanism. Once the primary ISP gets back online the secondary ISP WAN will stay online for at least 5-6 mins and after that, the secondary ISP WAN will get disconnected if you have you set up a failover setting in the Link Backup tab under the Load balance under the Advanced tab.

Cheers
Kiran

 

[kiranramrathod]

How to use the Online Detection feature to test the WAN link: How to use the Online Detection feature to test the WAN link? - TP-Link

 

[Sushubh]

i like the load balancing setup i have right now. but this information is useful. would check with airtel as backup once my second connection expires! thanks.

 

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[kiranramrathod]

Cool. What is your internet speed? Are you getting combined speed? Can you show me your load balancing setup? Please share snapshots if possible.

Thanks
Kiran

 

[Sushubh]

50mbps and 25mbps connections. on speedtest apps, i usually get one of these two speeds as it seems to take data from either of the connections. this is on torrents.

This is the only setting that I believe is needed.

Application based routing should not be enabled I guess. Haven't tried keeping it off though.

My purpose is not to get combined speeds. I just prefer to have a working internet. That's why I am paying for two connections. I also have Airtel but I am not using it on the load balancer. It is only connected to CCTV because they are the only one of the three offering static IP. Plus landline with unlimited calls come very handy.

 

[kiranramrathod]

Hey Sushubh,

I am getting combined download speed but upload speed is coming from MNTL it's not getting combined with Hathway. Any idea?

 

[Deleted member 63558]

How do I setup the TP-Link Load Balancer to have the WAN 2 run when WAN 1 is not having internet working?