Cisco Router Selection

Cisco Router Selection

With the constant evolution and change of the Cisco Router selection, it can be a tricky task to keep up-to-date. Do you know the current models of routers and more to the point do you know which Cisco router to choose?

Like us and many other people you will have been stunned and confused when Cisco removed from it’s line up what was considered the standard for midsized networks the 2600 and 3600 series. It was not their robustness or capabilities that saw them on to the ebay listings of secondhand routers, in particularly the 3600 series which can still do just about everything its latest counterpart can do; What made these fall by the wayside was the limitations of the CPU and the inadequate RAM. With the growth of the Cisco IOS beyond what these could handle combined with the swell of the packet load of most networks these older routers can no-longer cut the mustard. Saying that, the Cisco 3600 series is still the router of choice for some people as they can be picked up very cheaply in the secondhand marketplace.

The Cisco ISRs

There is a Cisco ISR to suit everyone’s needs; from the 800 series for the small to medium-sized network right through large campus or high performance large network. These are more than just routers they now provide services like IPSec, VPN, firewalls, and VoIP.

To help illustrate how to choose which router for your network type, the above diagram from Cisco demonstrates perfectly the routers available and their suitability. The rules for choosing the correct Cisco router is not set in stone, however there are some general pointers that should help.

Home office or small office

For constant VPN connections of up-to 10 home workers with good performance and reliability then look no further than the Cisco 800 Series. They have the Cisco IOS including IPS, VPN, VLAN, QoS, NAC, and Firewall. There are many routers in the range including wireless options and ISDN and DSL applications.

Small Remote Office

For networks that have up-to 25 or so users, the Cisco 1800 Series routers are the best choice. This router is ideal if all you need is a router to connect your office to the Internet, VPN, firewall, and wireless.

Larger Remote Office

If you require more performance and up scaling that the Cisco 1800 Series can offer, then you should look to the Cisco 2800 Series. Ideal for up-to around 50 users for office Internet connectivity, robust VPN access, with redundant power supply, Gig-E ports, NM expansion slots and Call Manager Express. Having the NM card slot lets you add things such as a 36-port switch with PoE, a DS3 ATM, a 24-port VoIP module, an intrusion detection module, a network analysis module, or a Cisco Unity Express voice mail module. Wonderful!

Office of 100 Workers or More

Cisco 3800 Series routers are similar to the 2800 Series in that there are a lot of HWIC and NM options for them. But what sets them apart from the 2800 Series is the sheer performance of the hardware and the number of HWIC and NM card that you can put into them.

Large HQ Office or Campus

For very large campus or service providers, the Catalyst 6500 and 7200/7300 Series platforms are for you. Cisco calls these "service aggregation platforms." These are very high-performance networking platforms with a huge capacity for expansion.