Site to site wireless as backup internet

[jmak]

Hi

 

We have a single FTTP connection via the County network and I've looked previously at various secondary line options. Currently the cost isn't justified, but as we use more online/cloud services, we'll become more dependent. It struck me today (after years of looking at the building from the window by my desk ) that our partner junior school is only 200m away with clear line of sight and has its own FTTP connection. If we were to come to a reciprocal agreement where we used each other's line as a backup option, what would be the best way to organise it to give maximum protection? Cost and complication rules out a fibre link.

 

I presume for a start we'd each set up a VLAN to separate the traffic.

 

From what I can see, the fibre connection arrives in an Alcatel Lucent OS6250 8M switch and then from a GB Ethernet into a Cisco Router then into our managed HP Procurve L3 switch. As far as I know, the Alcatel switch and Cisco router are provided by/belong to the ISP - although the other school is with the same provider, so we might be allowed to connect to it for this purpose.

 

Thanks as ever....

[Chris_]

Something to bear in mind.. as both schools have internet provided by the county via the same ISP, it's most likely that if your school loses its internet connection, chances are that the school next door will have also lost theirs!

[jmak]

Something to bear in mind.. as both schools have internet provided by the county via the same ISP, it's most likely that if your school loses its internet connection, chances are that the school next door will have also lost theirs!

Yep - aware of that. The only official option is an ADSL through the same provider. We're not allowed to connect a separate supply to their network for security reasons, so that would only protect against the local loop anyway and is quite expensive. Anything else would be a manual connection.

 

I'm thinking that this would be almost free (Unifi anyone [emoji3] ) and would offer some benefit. I'm guessing to minimise the points of failure, the place to connect it would be our managed switch?