We recently got a Linksys RV042 Dual Wan Router from MicroOptech Davao City, if you’re looking for a good computer shop that finds items for you outside Davao, this is the one. It only took them “TWO” (2) days to get it for us together with a 3com 24-ports 10/100 Mbps LAN Switch! I also purchased some of my computer’s parts here but I will post about it later. I also included a 5-step guide to installing and the configuration of this router, it can be found in the last part of the post.

Linksys RV042 Dual WAN Router

Anyway about this router: It certainly is a must have for those small businesses who should not have any downtime especially SEO companies that rely on the internet to survive. Very easy to install and manage plus you can have two of these to join two separate networks that are in different locations through it’s VPN system. I enjoyed speeds reaching upto 650KBps per second using this router, this speed was achieved trough load-balancing wherein our two ISPs (one is 3.0Mbps the other is 2.7Mbps) joined forces to quickly get me a copy of Microsoft’s Visual Studio 2008. Not only is this router good but its manufacturer is a partner of Cisco Networking Systems.

These reasons are my opinions on why you should go into Dual-WAN setup rather than a single line:

1.) Two 5 mBps lines will always be better than one 10 mBps line, The reason why is that most ISPs limit the number of connections you can have to certain access point/file so for example you have a download utilizing 5 connections, with Dual-WAN you can have double this number and thus you can reach higher speeds.

2.) You’ll always have a backup line if one goes down.

These reasons are my opinions on why you should NOT go into Dual-WAN setup rather than a single line:

1.) Some websites will detect IP change so if you have a Dual-WAN connection the website will see you as being in two places per session, This is concurrent of DOS attack and you might get logged out of the site due to this.** As a remedy to the above situation I recommend a line that has higher bandwidth than the other, this way the RV042 will use that line always and when the load is not balanced it will automatically go to the other connection thus solving the interchanging IP problem

My Linksys RV042 Dual-Wan Router/ PLDT DSL Modem/Globe DSL Modem and Linksys SipuraSPA VOIP Office Short Layout Video

* This setup places the router in two wan connections, 1 VOIP Modem and is connected to our main switch which is located inside the cabinet. I recommend installing a little fan if the area is a bit hot, A hot router, regardless of brand, will not produce good speeds.

These are five easy steps to do when deploying this router in dual wan mode:

1.) Connect one at a time the two DSL Routers to your PC and configure them to become stand-alone bridges if their connection type is PPPoE. This is the only hard part that you will have to do in this setup. If you’re given a static IP by your ISP it would be much easier then.

2.) Connect the RV042 to your computer temporarily and access http://192.168.0.1 through a browser, if this does not work try accessing http://192.168.1.1/. This should display the router’s configuration page.

3.) Go to Cisco’s website here. Download the appropriate firmware, To do the upgrade go to System Management -> Firmware Upgrade. The reason why this is a must have is because there are a lot of fixes that have happened since the router was initially launched, I will not go into the details but I will require that you do this update before proceeding! A lot of people have not done this and have problems configuring the router usually in VPN.

4.) After the firmware update, connect your two DSL Modems to the WAN 1, DMZ / WAN 2 Lan ports, configure the two WAN connections in the Setup -> Network page of the RV042. It should be located below and should not be that hard to setup because your ISP should provide the details for it, I recommend leaving the “Service Name” fields empty in PPPoE, this caused me five days of figuring out why the router cannot dial one of the lines. This was caused by a Siemens SpeedStream Modem, this modem is good but it’ll kill you if you don’t know how to set it up as a bridge. Also check the setting for Load Balance under System Management->Dual-WAN, should you wish to use only one line/connection and keep the other as a backup when it goes off-line or down, select the Smart Link Backup setting. If you want to do a setup like mine where the two lines will be used simultaneously, select the Load Balance setting.

5.) Test the two connections System Summary Page of the RV042, The connections should light up in the image as light green and if you have connected successfully, Go to the System Management -> Dual-WAN and select Load Balancing to fully utilize both WAN ports of the RV042, and we are done, enjoy the immense speeds of this setup!

If you have any trouble at all setting up this router please add a comment and tell me about it! c(”,)

Update 06/26/08: Tip on DSL Modems and the Linksys RV042 Router

1.) Always check the System Log of your Linksys RV042 router! : I’ve never really noticed this until I realized one day that my Skype IM was always reconnecting, I then studied the router logs and noticed that one of the modems were experiencing intermittent connections. It kept disconnecting every 5-10 minutes! It took so much time troubleshooting, the ISP even had to replace the telephone wire that leads to the modem, and the problem was narrowed down to the DSL Modem and it got replaced. Lesson learned!, always check the System Log of the RV042 when it is in load balancing mode. The reason we won’t notice the intermittent connection is because there are two connections and the RV042 is great at load balancing when one goes down. What it does is that it automatically tries to reconnect that connection and if successful proceeds to balance the load again. Due to this you will not be able to see clear signs that there is something wrong.

  1. nice
    Apr 15, 2008

    ken, post ka rin ng non-techie blog. para makarelate nmn ako. nalolost in space ako sa topics. hahahaha!

  2. nice
    Apr 15, 2008

    wwwuuuaahh!! ken, pwede non-techi blog nmn para makarelate ako. nalolost in space ako sa mga topics mo. haha! =)

  3. Nika
    Apr 23, 2008

    Hi.. Thanks for your weblog, I have a question, what is CPE? is it an access point? would you please let me know what is stand for? how i can use it with Linksys RV042? thanks Moushie

  4. john
    May 11, 2008

    I have a problem with setting up 2 RV042 ,i made a tunnel between them & it worked successfully,i am using the RV042 in the backup mode so if one internet line went down the other shall take over,so i tried to make 2 tunnels between the 2 RV042 ,but it refuses to make the second tunnel due to the LAN IP address range (for source & destination )in both tunnels is the same ,so how can i use the RV042 to make a backup connection ??

    Thanks in advance
    John

  5. jimox
    May 12, 2008

    the best ken!! hehe,. pero naa advantage ug disadvantage ang pagamit sa load-balancing??

    hehe.. and Ive heard naa two type of load balancing.. how true is it.. tsek3x.

  6. Makmak`A.K.A. Aerandir Inglorion
    Jul 31, 2008

    Thank you for choosing Linksys, for more information about your device, you can always go to our support website, it’s http://www.Linksys.com/downloads.

    This has been mark, badge I.D. 28373, have a great day. wahahahaha
    closing spiel… =))

  7. Makmak`A.K.A. Aerandir Inglorion
    Jul 31, 2008
  8. M o u s h i g o
    Aug 07, 2008

    lol heheheheh, tabang ko sa imo baligya mak

  9. JasonHears
    Sep 13, 2008

    First off, great post! I just wanted to add some helpful tips for anyone (like me) who found this page while searching for a solution why they couldn’t get their RV042 set up to work with dual WANs. I’m using firmware version 1.3.12.

    Following your steps, when I got to Steps 4/5 of connecting the two internet connections to the RV042, and trying to test them, I kept getting an IP of 0.0.0.0 for WAN2. It wasn’t working. I went through a lot of troubleshooting to see if perhaps the DSL modem/router wasn’t working, or if I should set it up in the RV042 settings differently. What I eventually discovered was the my RV042 was set up for “Smart Link Backup” instead of “Load Balance” under the System Management->Dual WAN page. I don’t know if this is new to a recent firmware, but it appears as if WAN2 is disabled by the router until it is needed (ie WAN1 fails). So I was interpreting the 0.0.0.0 IP address on the System Summary page as a sign that the connection was mis-configured or not working.

    I set the Dual WAN to “Load Balance”, and the IP address came up for WAN2. So it’s just something to be aware of, as I’m sure more people who are new to setting these up might come across as well. It’s an awesome router, and works great!

  10. M o u s h i g o
    Sep 18, 2008

    Great thanks for the tip, I’ll add that up Jason.

  11. TAllboy
    Dec 11, 2008

    Hi,

    I bought a RV042 but I cannot succeed in setting it up properly.

    It works doing NAT for my WAN1 (with static IP), but I cannot make it work with the WAN2 which goes over an aDSL connection with a dynamic IP.
    I try to configure with the choice of obtain an IP automatically, but doesn’t seem to be enough.

    Should I configure something in the ADSL modem/router?

    Should I plan the private IP adresses for all the devices? subnets?

    Any hint might be helpful.

    Thanks,

  12. M o u s h i g o
    Dec 11, 2008

    @Tallboy

    Hmmm it’s probably the adsl modem, it needs to be configured as a bridge so that the router will be the one to dial in the username and password. Another option would be to let the adsl modem dial on its own and just set WAN2 to obtain an IP automatically.

  13. justin
    Feb 04, 2009

    Hi,

    load balancing does not add the bandwidths of 2 diff ISP’s .. FYI..Ãœ

  14. M o u s h i g o
    Feb 04, 2009

    no it doesn’t add, I don’t think my post has the word add in it.

  15. mimi
    Apr 30, 2009

    Hi,

    Good day! We are planning to purchase a DUAL WAN Router, you mentioned about MicroOptech store, where is that store located? Do you have their contact number. Thanks for the blog, probably we can use that after we had purchase the Dual WAN.

  16. Siv
    May 23, 2009

    Nice blog! thanks! it helps a lot!..hehehe…Sir, post ka naman ng regarding Exchange and ISA configuration if you have more do’s and dont’s! thanks! thanks!

  17. supahbored
    Sep 04, 2009

    hi can you give me the details on how to set up the Siemens SpeedStream Modem as bridge.. thanks in advanced.. 🙂

  18. tabzz
    Oct 20, 2009

    paano e set-up yung 3 ISP sa isang dual-wan …pwede bang sa switch ko nalang ilagay yung isang ISP….hindi kaya magkaproblema>>>>????

  19. romo
    Mar 07, 2010

    hi
    best wishes, thanks for sharing your valuable information, i have same scenario but little bit difference. my one of the Internet connection is cable connection without the modem and ip is dynamic and this ISP provide a link where a page open when some one log in with the user name and password then this connection work, i ask from this ISP, is this PPPoE type connection? they told me no this is not, my second one connection is adsl. so is this router work in my case.Please give me advice

    Thanks and regards
    Ravi

  20. M o u s h i g o
    Mar 29, 2010

    @tabzz
    di pwede 3 ISP sa isang dual-wan, 2 lng maximum

    @romo
    i’m not sure what you mean but I think there is a device you can use to convert the cable signal for use of the dual wan router

  21. tomsky
    Jul 07, 2010

    Hi,
    I can’t upgrade the firmware of my VPN router, everytime I enter the latest firmware and upgraded it, there’s no message if it is successfull or not.. We have two (2) ISP’s Digitel DSL and Globe Broadband. I set it into dual wan, load balancing but when the one ISP is down.. it is also disconnected. Please Help… I need a simple instruction. Thanks and God Bless!

  22. neilgcebu
    Jul 27, 2010

    We also have RV042. With load balancing, our AOL Messenger keeps on disconnecting/reconnecting.

    They say, it is because of different IPs being seen by the software. like you are seen at 2 locations at a time, so it disconnects, then reconnect. How do we deal with this problem with RV042?

  23. yasa
    Jan 23, 2011

    i have linksys RVO42
    I configured Dual -Wan Load balance
    and make firewall disable
    when i connect men messenger video or call it not responsible
    when i configured Smart Link Backup it’s work

  24. router-user
    Jan 30, 2011

    Can you explain in more detail the fix for – Some websites will detect IP change so if you have a Dual-WAN connection the website will see you as being in two places per session – I have this problem!

    On the dual wan page I should uncheck the default gateway under the slower ISP and then check the load balance?

    Regards,
    Jeff

  25. M o u s h i g o
    Jan 30, 2011

    @Jeff

    Here’s what I used as a workaround for that problem, You can route the HTTP (80) protocol to only one wan connection. The configuration is just below the page where you set Load Balance settings. However this causes HTTP downloads to slow down and not utilize the other line when using multi-part downloading software such as Free Download Manager/DAP etc…

    If you have a very low disconnection rate or 0 with both ISP’s it should not be a problem because the only other cause that can reset the session token is browser termination.

    @neilgcebu, yasa

    Same solution as above but I don’t know what port AIM uses

  26. red
    Apr 29, 2011

    does this router works as gateway within a proxy and a modem? you see, we are connecting several pc’s (via ethernet) through a proxy (which serves as our router for the mean time) to the internet.. the diagram goes like this:

    PC1,PC2,PC3,PC^n… —> PROXY —-> INTERNET MODEM (ISP)

    and because we have this RV042 Linksys router. wanting it to be in dual WAN mode, we want to make the above diagram like this:

    PC1,PC2,PC3,PC^n… —> PROXY —-> RV042 —-> INTERNET MODEM(S) (ISPs)

    we already tested the 2nd diagram connection but it doesn’t work. PCs were not able to pass through (i think) PROXY and then unable to enter in RV042, therefore INTERNET CONNECTION FAILED. And so we are in this conclusion that there might be some problem(s) in our configuration. Can anyone help us resolve this problem? Or might as well give us any suggestions. Thanks!

  27. Web Design Resource
    Feb 20, 2012

    “Always check the System Log” it is very important for all router and perfect guideline will help you to manage router. Thanks for the informative guidelines.

  28. castro
    Apr 06, 2012

    System Log how to configure, for me is not working.

  29. M o u s h i g o
    Apr 06, 2012

    @castro – I am not sure about what you mean but I think you should turn on system logs first in the router.

  30. kenny
    Jun 16, 2012

    hi can someone help me. which ip should i set to the two adsl lines i have before connecting it to the dual wan??

  31. M o u s h i g o
    Jul 23, 2012

    @kenny

    Just use the ISP’s assigned IP, the router will take care of it.

  32. Dosage
    Oct 20, 2012

    Hi sir Mous, i’m kinda lost with my cisco rv042
    i have two pldtbiz static ip im having problem connecting thru internet
    but the cisco status says it’s connected and colored green.

  33. M o u s h i g o
    Oct 22, 2012

    DHCP might not have been setup correctly. Try to ping an IP address from the router if there is no response then contact the ISP. If there is a response check your IPv4 settings.

  34. benz
    Jun 03, 2013

    hello everyone i just want to ask what load balancing actually means. is rv042 can add the bandwidth of two DSL modem given by your ISP?

  35. benz
    Jun 05, 2013

    hello moushigo, thank you for your reply but to make it very clear to me about RV042 load balancer, if i have ISP1 running @ 20Mbps and also i have ISP2 running @ 20Mbps the total speed having on my client computer is 40Mbps? correct me if im wrong..thanks again :)God bless..

  36. benz
    Jun 05, 2013

    Sir, what about configuring quickvpn on a client computer using this RV042 VPN router, i tried so many time but still no luck any idea? i have 2 router in our office the VPN router is under of a router 192.168.1.1, and the RV042 is 192.168.200.1

  37. Gary Olfindo
    Aug 21, 2013

    Sir i have a cisco RV042 and i want to connect it to 2 DSL modem.My problem is i would like to connect it to bridge mode because i want to access it outside. My problem is im not familiar with the setup and i only depend on forums. This is what ive got.

    I configure the two modems to bridge mode
    then in RV042 im make to setup it in router mode. Is it correct sir…

  38. M o u s h i g o
    Aug 21, 2013

    @Gary Olfindo, you can still access the router via both even in load balance mode using both IP addresses if you enable the web management page to be accessed via WAN.

  39. benz
    Sep 02, 2013

    Nice blog mga kabayans… gusto ko rin mag share ng info bka skaling makatulong ito.. pag naka experience kau ng intermittent internet connection gamit ang load balancing mode ng router na ito try nyu adjust yung MTU (Maximum Transmission Unit) sized ng router nyu based on your network, I-run nyu lang acnf CMD then type this ping [url / local server or IP address] –f –l xxxx
    for example (ping http://www.yahoo.com -f -l 1472) pag naka received kau ng
    “Packet needs to be fragmented but DF set” meaning need nyu mag decrease ng 10 sa value ng 1472, so ang next command is
    (ping http://www.yahoo.com -f -l 1462) gang sa makakuha kau ng reply kagaya ng nasa ibaba:
    Reply from 98.139.180.149: bytes=1462 time=201ms TTL=51 sa example na to ang correct MTU sized ng network ko is “1462”
    after nyu mlaman ang correct MTU ng network nyu hanapin nyu lng kung saan ung MTU settings ng router nyu den ska nyu palitan..GoodLuck to all…:)