Absolutely helps! This is great info @G.D. Gentleman thank you.As @JohnHenry mentioned, there is various levels of Multi-WAN Routers.
Option 1 - SMB (1-20 staff)
The entry level for a location of 1-20 staff (up to 30 or so if all light duty users of the internet) and something you can do yourself if you comfortable with the basics of setting up a router is:
Dual WAN 4-Port Gigabit Wireless AC VPN Router DSR-500AC
Optimal network security for the growing networking needs of small and medium businesses.www.dlink.com
$300ish if I recall - sold out on Amazon at the moment. Should be back in stock soon. There is the cheaper/lower spec unit by Dlink - DSR-250 (various models of it with/without wifi, etc).
Nice unit, good wire speed up to 1000mbps inbound. Support 200mbps IPSEC VPN tunnels for site to site. Bonus: Has a built in OpenVPN Server allowing you to VPN into the office as well.
With the Dual WAN port you simply plug in two ISP's and do a basic one time configuration wizard.
Bell and Rogers are my usual goto's. If you go 3rd party like Teksavvy, just check which larger carrier they are with (typically Rogers).
Day to day you will have the combined speed of the two ISPs (roughly) shared across your multiple staff. Instead of going for the fastest (most expensive) service of one ISP, you can go with 2 middle packages from 2 ISPs to manage the monthly cost and still have the overall combined speed to your location.
When one ISP is down (like yesterday) these type of devices simply operates on the other ISP connection until both are up again.
On the note of VOIP: I have all my clients who use VOIP with a separate provider then their cell phone carrier. Using a 3rd party VOIP company and then your choice of Bell/Rogers/etc for cellular is most common. If Rogers is your VOIP, then have your cell phones on Bell or other.
Option 2 - SMB to Enterprise (30 to XXXX staff)
Same as above but there are higher grade models of firewalls that do the same but for larger capacity.
SonicWall, FortiGate, Palo Alto just to name 3 I work with the most have SMB pricing ($1000-2000 per unit) up to full Enterprise. These solutions start in the 30-50 staff at site up to 1000-5000 users per site and the price tag to show it.
Option 3 - Outsourced
Instead of going with a single last mile carrier for internet (Rogers, Bell, Telus) there are companies that provide multi-carrier (last mile) Internet and/or MPLS (if you have multiple locations, a central datacenter, etc) solutions. Essentially these companies provide 24/7 managed equipment onsite (typically Cisco) and source the multi last mile carriers into your location(s) for a monthly fee.
1000/1000mbps Bell Fiber with a 150/20mbps Rogers Backup circuit for example.
Same concept for VOIP/Cell phone design as mentioned in Option 1. Some of these providers offer VOIP out of their datacenters as well over their managed Internet/MPLS service as a full turnkey solution.
Yesterday I mentioned 12 of my clients had their Rogers components (internet, cell phone, voip) of their overall designs offline. In each case they all had internet service in their office - some came in from home just to get internet for the day and into the evening - and if they had Rogers cellular then they were using WiFi and the company VOIP solution for the day.
By 3am I saw most Rogers links/services back online. 11am today 100% restored technically with a bit of outages for a few minutes but then back up.
Hope this helps.
I was doing some research on mobile hotspots but the dual wan solution seems to be the much better option.
