Internet Connectivity

Securing Your Connections with Multi-Link

Traditionally, Internet connections provided by ISPs have been a single point of failure for corporate communications. In order to eliminate this risk, organizations have had to resort to very complicated and costly solutions such as redundant routers and switches, routing protocols and peering arrangements between ISPs.

StoneGate enables you to overcome the Internet availability problems in a simple, straightforward and cost-effective manner. StoneGate provides you the possibility to easily utilize multiple parallel Internet connections. In case of link failure, traffic is automatically routed over to the remaining links.

StoneGate Multi-Link functionality can be deployed when connecting directly to Internet and in secured office-to-office VPN connections. It supports all sorts of Internet links, such as ISDN, DSL, leased lines, modem connection and even satellite.

With Multi-Link, you can guarantee that you always have Internet connectivity!

Benefits

Eliminate easily your ISP(s) as a single point of failure
Ensure that your services are always available
Increase the bandwidth by aggregating multiple lines together
Provide better service for users by selecting always the fastest link
No additional costs or configuration of specialized hardware or software

Assessing the Alternatives

Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)

Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), the often-used method for ISP multi-homing, requires additional monetary investment, specialized hardware, as well as complex implementation and management, including the negotiation of cooperative agreements between competing ISPs to ensure performance. StoneGate's Multi-Link Technology, in contrast, works out-of-the-box, with simple drag-and-drop configuration.

External ISP Load Balancers

Appliances placed "in front" of firewalls use some methods similar to Multi-Link. This dedicated hardware however, requires additional monetary investment, is maintenance-intensive and must be configured separately. From a technical standpoint, external load balancers are not preferable as they tend to compromise throughput.