Options to install failover

[Quincy01]

I have a simple Meraki go system with gx50 and gr 10 and 12 access points. I would like a cell solution for failover should the Xfinity cable system fail. Xfinity offers this on their home and business networks but requires using the Xfinity modem router and one mesh ap.I believe the gx50 would be required to be in bridge mode. There are multiple cell services offering cell based ip services but I don’t know how to configure with the gx50.

[Xydocq]

Hello @Quincy01 

The Meraki Go GX devices offer only a single WAN port. There's no bridge mode for GX devices from what I can tell. There is a cellular-setting on the GX-setup-page. But I guess this feature, even requested many times, never got activated or really implemented.

I do not know Xfinity, but some ISPs allow failover only if you run their modem/router in router-mode. IP-passtrough or DMZ aren't supported in that case, this would lead to a dual NAT situation, if you keep using a second router behind the ISPs modem/router.

I assume, your GX50 currently runs on DHCP-mode on the WAN port and gets the WAN-IP directly from Xfinity.

In order to use Xfinity failover solution, you would have to set the LAN on their router to a different ip-range then the one you use on the GX50. You might have to change the WAN settings on the GX50 to static and enter the settings manually. Gateway would be the ip of the Xfinity router, DNS can be set to a DNS of your choice.

There are some downpoints to this:

- If you run VPN or any other services on your network, you would have to set some port-forwarding rules on the ISPs modem/router all pointing at the GX50 and additional rules on the GX50 if they are on the GX50s VLAN

- The firewall of the GX50 kinda becomes obsolete, it only sees one ip on the WAN-port which is the one of the Xfinity device, it is still working but some features of it won't

- Your connection might slow down a bit because of the dual NAT

If you don't need a failover solution leave everything the way it is.

Hope this helps

Cheers

[Quincy01]

Ok, thank you for the explanation . I was hoping that I missed something. My next best solution is to install a second ip from Xfinity using their router. I can setup critical items only on that network which can have cell failover from xfinity.

Is there any way Meraki go ap could broadcast ssid from my 2nd network while still on the gx50?

I live and work in Florida and failover network would be a big advantage for small business given the hurricane and storm potential. Lost internet occurs all the time as many power lines and cables are above ground. This year most of the usa could use failover! Xfinity is doing tv ads for cell backup.

[Xydocq]

I am not a pro, just a normal user. I have one GR12 in use so I can't really say if you can tie two GR-devices together to broadcast the same SSIDs from different LAN-connections.

If you use the router from Xfinity, why do you want to keep using the GX50? You can use the GR10 and GR12 without a GX device.

Or you could follow the instruction given in the first post. As an example: Set the LAN on the Xfinity router to 10.10.10.0/24, Connect the GX50 to the router and see if it gets connected to the internet. If yes, make sure you assign a reserved ip to the GX50 on Xfinity router. The GX50 sould be using an ip adress like 192.168.xx.0. Make sure you forward ports if are using VPN on the GX50. If it is just for internet-access you don't have to do anything.

I have a dual-NAT setup running. My GX20 is first in line, so parts of the downpoints don't apply. The only point I am not sure, is the connection speed. I get a max of 111Mbit/s on the GX20 directly and around 109Mbit/s when going thru the second router.

[Quincy01]

I have considered using GR 10 and 12 AP with XFINITY modem/router and removing Gx50 from the network. The AP are already setup and I would lose vlan capacity but would have failover. I’ll try and see what happens. 
I see remarks about gr 10/12 having router functions. I’m not sure what this implies.