I'm getting conflicting answers off Google so I thought I'd see if anyone here has done anything like this with Ubuntu Server.
Basically I'd like to add a kind of "load balancing" router to the home network. The ice storm over the last two days knocked out the cable internet, but left the telephone lines intact. This has been true of my home in every major ice storm in the past ten years. It would be nice to have a router which had the option of sharing a dial-up connection when the cable internet went out. I have a Linux-friendly prepaid Internet service provider for when I travel ("Budget Dialup" in case anyone is looking for Linux-friendly prepaid Internet), so there's a dialup option available for home use.
What I'd like to do is stick a Linux router between the cable modem and the existing wireless router. The new Linux router would take Internet access from the cable modem, have a regular dialup modem setup for emergency Dial-On-Demand, and then share out the Internet (from whatever source) to the home network. The modem wouldn't have a phone line plugged into it unless there was an actual cable outage, so there would be no risk of accidentally using up the prepaid minutes.
I want to have web and DNS caching to minimize bandwidth usage during dialup periods, though they wouldn't be a bad idea even with the cable Internet. I haven't done anything like this in awhile, so if you know what I should be looking for, it would be much appreciated.
I would like to use Ubuntu but I have read in various forums that the Dial-On-Demand function I need may not be possible using Ubuntu's versions of pppd and other software. If you know of a better solution then I'm interested. I have looked at Smoothwall but it doesn't seem to have the D-O-D function.
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