Find the better Cisco router for your needs

 If the Cisco router line changes so often, it can be difficult to stay updated. What are the current router models and what router would you use in what situations?

If the Cisco router line changes so often, it can be difficult to stay updated. What are the current router models and what router would you use in what situations?

What is missing from the line?

For those of us who have been working with Cisco routers for some time, some of the most popular routers are missing in the current range. Cisco suspended the 2600 and 3600 series routers some time ago. For remote branches and the SMB market, these routers have always been the work of the Cisco router line.

In my opinion, not their abilities made them obsolete. It could do just about anything the latest routers could do. For this reason, many stores still use them.

What made these series of routers depreciate was limiting the processing of their processing, Flash and RAM storage. Cisco IOS has become larger than those routers that could handle efficiently with the maximum amount of RAM.

In addition, typical network packet uploads have increased so much that Gig-Ethernet has become common across networks. These routers simply did not have the processing to cope with that performance with the processor they had.

Meet the ISRs

What was really new in the last year is the Cisco Integrated Services (ISR) router concept.

SSRIs work for all businesses, from a single telecom from the central office to the medium or large company that operates BGP over the Internet. Cisco has called these routers "integrated services" because they are not only oriented as a traditional router, but they can also offer other services, such as IPSec VPN, firewall, intrusion prevention and VoIP call management.

What router do I need?

People often ask me which router they should use for a particular situation. For starters, I think does a decent job of illustrating the available Cisco routers and the load they can support (as illustrated by the light blue column in the graphic).

Of course, there is no strict and fast rule that tells us which router to use for what situation. However, here are some general recommendations that I suggest using.

Home office or small branch

Suppose you have a home office worker who needs more than a regular VPN connection. The employee will work a full 40-hour work week through a site-to-site VPN and wants it to have the most reliable and efficient connection possible.

Cisco 800 series routers are ideal in this situation. They are excellent routers for one person or even a small office for up to 10 people. They have full Cisco IOS, including the latest iOS 12.4 which includes features such as Firewall, IPS, VPN, VLAN, QoS, NAC and even high availability features. There are different models for different applications, including ISDN, DSL and routers with integrated wireless connection.

I use a Cisco 871W router in my home. In addition to being an excellent router for Internet connection, it is an excellent router for testing Cisco IOS commands. I also recommend routers in the 800 series of CCNA and CCNP candidates as the best option for studying iOS commands.

The remote office of 25 workers.

For remote offices with 25 employees, Cisco 1800 Series routers are an excellent choice. This router is perfect if all you need is a router to connect your office to the Internet, VPN, firewall and wireless.

The remote office of 50 workers.

If you are looking for the same basic functionality of the 1800 series, but need much more performance and expandability, then Cisco 2800 Series routers are what you need. With the 2800 series, you can get everything in the 1800 series, in addition to redundant power options, Gig-Ethernet ports, expansion slot network (NM) modules, VoIP Call Manager Express (CME) with SRST and more. Many performances

The design of the NM card slot allows you to add items such as a 36-port PoE switch, a DS3 ATM, a 24-port VoIP module, an intrusion detection module, a network analysis module or a network module . Cisco Unity Express voicemail. Latest cisco router model in my opinion, the 2800 series network module slot is where the range of Cisco routers begins to get interesting. 

The remote office or headquarters of 100 workers.

The Cisco 3800 series routers are similar to the 2800 series because there are many HWIC and NM options for them. But what sets them apart from the 2800 series is the excellent hardware performance and the amount of HWIC and NM cards you can place in them.

Campus or large central office

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

Quick tip: Always read the router specifications you are considering and consult your local SE reseller or an experienced Cisco reseller to make sure you get the best router for this job.

conclusion

It can be difficult to keep up with Cisco's constantly expanding and changing router offerings. In this article, we cover the various scenarios in which you will need a Cisco router and the five main Cisco router platforms that are included in these scenarios. I hope that the next time you need to select a Cisco router, you know exactly which router line to go to.

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