Cisco routers for home production use?

ntba

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 28, 2005
Messages
185
The thought randomly crossed my mind, has anyone here used a more advanced cisco router for their main internet/production setup at Home?

Something like a 2621XM with a home DSL connection?

Any disadvantages to running an older IOS/not-latest-cisco-router in such an environment?

Any advantages besides getting constant CCNA practice when something goes wrong :D

I was just curious, nothing overly technical but since google-ing anything to do with cisco usually brings up lots of garbage study guides I thought I'd see what some people may have that they use daily

PS. Home cisco labs are excluded, when I mean home production use I mean it just sits there and runs your MAIN home network that your family and friends use, not the secret cave with racks of cisco monsters you use for your exams.
 
I have a Cisco lab setup, but I also use a Cisco 871 for my residential WAN connection, and an AP1131 for my wireless network.
 
What type of Cisco routers are you talking here ? All my installs use the Business series units. the 4000 & 4400N
 
People mostly run 800s at home because you basically don't gain anything with bigger units (cept noise levels and electricity bills :). You want those if you got a really fat pipe or do voip or some fancy routing etc.
 
I run a 1801 at home with a Aironet 1121 for the wireless thing, the great thing is that once you set it up, you dont have to worry about it anymore. The thing is that you cant really practice your CCNA or whatever, since it wont break down....

Cheers
 
I've been running a beefed up 1721 behind a PIX 501 for a while now. I love the set up and it's quiet :)
 
I run a 3725. I prefer a Cisco device at home because I get a lot of features I wouldn't have with SOHO stuff, like real QoS, CME, IPSEC/GRE, etc.

My router isn't the newest, but it runs 12.4T, which is all I need at the moment. It can also do a decent amount of throughput although I might upgrade to a 3745 when I'm offered faster speeds.
 
I just got an 1841 to use at home, just having a hard time giving up my pfsense box as my gateway at this point so I haven't switched over yet.
 
Like Vito I also run a 3725 at home, all though he uses his for way more than I do at this point. Just running a 15/1 cable line and 3 phones on cme. I also use an 1131ag for wireless at my place.
 
...Aironet 1121 for the wireless thing, the great thing is that once you set it up, you dont have to worry about it anymore...

I wish I could say that about the 1142N I have deployed at home. Cisco overnighted me another. We'll see how that goes.
 
There are much better and modern solutions you can get instead of using a 2621xm router. And this is coming from a CCNP who has a rack with 5x 2610XMs.

If you want advanced and modern networking capabilities for your home, look no further than say a SonicWALL TZ-100. There is NO reason to have a big power hungry cisco router for what you're doing.

If you want CCNA practice, use Dynamips/GNS3 for a much better and thorough experience. You won't be learning anything concrete for your CCNA using a single router.
 
A Sonicwall can't do most of the shit I use my 3725 for.

Like what out of curiousity? In fact, I know many things the SonicWALL can do that the 3725 can't...but all depends what you're using it for.

SSL-VPNs, DPI Stateless Inspection, even on SSL connections these days are some features the 3725 wouldn't have. Not to mention the low end model I mentioned is 100Mbit of stateful throughput and sips power.
 
According to this link the TZ-100 doesn't do a whole lot:

http://www.sonicwall.com/us/products/13281.html

The TZ series in general seems pretty meh.

Fifth Generation TZ-series (100 and 210) are quite nice. That's an overview of features. They do many, many other things not listed. What are your specific concerns? They have great support for SIP and QoS as well, which I saw you mention before.

It just seems you're being extremely general with your comments, so I was curious of your specifics. Like I said, I'm a CCNP, and scoffed at SonicWALL at first. But now I would definitely recommend SonicWALL over a Cisco ASA, never-mind a standard stateful router. As you get to the Enterprise/Internet Edge level ($25,000K+ boxes) my opinions change somewhat though. But Sonicwall is definitely my #1 choice in the SOHO/Medium Business environment. Anyway, my recommendation was to the original poster anyway.

Heck you might want to check out the live SonicWALL Live demo site where you can get into their OS:

http://livedemo.sonicwall.com/livedemo.html
 
GRE/IPSEC
DMVPN
BGP
CME/SIP Trunk
Extremely granular QoS

I could probably keep going.

SonicWALL does all of that. DMVPN is not something you see on a single router, in the SonicWALL world those are considered 'interconnected' tunnels.

BGP is a WAN routing protocol, which is nothing I would use a Firewall for nor does the original poster need--and it boggles my mind that it's a concern. That should all be done by your ISP. I'm trying to figure out why you personally need BGP support as well. Your ISP allows it, yet you don't have a big fat throughput? I have a 35/35 fiber connection at home and my TZ-210 is fine.

Ummm, SonicWall does IPSEC up to 256bit-AES, aka the strongest encryption out there. You can do that with both PSKs or 3rd party certs/RSA tokens. SIP trunking is thee. Extremely granular QoS. Both in terms of vanilla QoS settings, but using Deep-Packet Inspeciton on the Application Fireweall as well. You can do QoS on an encrypted inbound connection if you want.
 
Last edited:
I don't run BGP with my provider, I run it with friends, some of whom post on here. I need it because I use it.

What do you mean "DMVPN is not something you see on a single router"? I wasn't saying the Sonicwall doesn't do IPSEC, I am able to read. I'm saying it doesn't do IPSEC/GRE. Not sure what you said about SIP trunking, maybe that it's there? So I can run a SIP trunk to a provider and do call control using a Sonicwall (like I can with my 3725)? I don't think so.

Last, who's talking about firewalls here? I'm not, and the OP is asking about routers. You can love up on Sonicwall stuff all you want, but I do and will continue to scoff at them. Cisco devices have far, far more features. For a small business, who cares, use Sonicwall or DLink or whatever if they aren't willing to pay for a Cisco device... but beyond that, there's no way I'd use a Sonicwall for a business or at my house.
 
I was wondering something similar, except with gigabit switches. Are there any oldish(and somewhat affordable) gigabit switches that could both serve as a piece of a CCNA lab and the core of a gigabit home network?

I don't come from a networking background, so sometime soon I'm going to try to set up a Dynamips/Dynagen box with extra nics to attach the virtual routers to, and then out into a couple or 3 physical switches, one of which I would like to be gigabit. (I'll probably do a couple of 2950's as well).
 
I just dug through my config to see what I use that I doubt the low end Sonicwalls support. Here it is:

QoS
CME (IP PBX)/SIP Trunking
VLANs
OSPF
BGP
Time based ACLs (the TZ might support this, not sure)
IPSEC/GRE
NHRP
NetFlow
IP SLA
EEM
Better QoS (from my limited experience with Sonicwall)

I think that's it. Some of the way I do things could theoretically be replaced by an available feature of the Sonicwall stuff, but I'm just comparing like-for-like.

So I don't think you can tell me I should be using a Sonicwall. And, honestly, this thread wasn't about Sonicwalls until you came in here and started preaching about them. The guy is asking about Cisco stuff.
 
OH some one said Sonicwall, I had one of those tz units, Guess what, i don't have it any more! YUK!
 
I was wondering something similar, except with gigabit switches. Are there any oldish(and somewhat affordable) gigabit switches that could both serve as a piece of a CCNA lab and the core of a gigabit home network?

I don't come from a networking background, so sometime soon I'm going to try to set up a Dynamips/Dynagen box with extra nics to attach the virtual routers to, and then out into a couple or 3 physical switches, one of which I would like to be gigabit. (I'll probably do a couple of 2950's as well).

Cisco gig switches are $$$$$. You could maybe find a 3550-12T for a decent price, but even those are pretty expensive. For a gig 3560, you're paying a ton. An older gig 3750 will be a little cheaper, but still very, very expensive for home stuff.
 
Cisco gig switches are $$$$$. You could maybe find a 3550-12T for a decent price, but even those are pretty expensive. For a gig 3560, you're paying a ton. An older gig 3750 will be a little cheaper, but still very, very expensive for home stuff.

How about the 3508G-XL?
 
About gigabit cisco switches: from what I can tell, they're pretty expensive and not really many used available. You'd just be better off getting non-cisco for home network and 10/100 cisco for lab.
 
About gigabit cisco switches: from what I can tell, they're pretty expensive and not really many used available. You'd just be better off getting non-cisco for home network and 10/100 cisco for lab.

10/100 are becoming useless now, with all the traffic of a home network these days, they are useless. Spend the extra few $$ and get a gigabit one! Well worth the Money.


If you need a managed one, the dells are nice!
 
Was meant he should get gigabit non-cisco for home network if that wasn't clear enough...
 
I just dug through my config to see what I use that I doubt the low end Sonicwalls support. Here it is:

QoS
CME (IP PBX)/SIP Trunking
VLANs
OSPF
BGP
Time based ACLs (the TZ might support this, not sure)
IPSEC/GRE
NHRP
NetFlow
IP SLA
EEM
Better QoS (from my limited experience with Sonicwall)

I think that's it. Some of the way I do things could theoretically be replaced by an available feature of the Sonicwall stuff, but I'm just comparing like-for-like.

So I don't think you can tell me I should be using a Sonicwall. And, honestly, this thread wasn't about Sonicwalls until you came in here and started preaching about them. The guy is asking about Cisco stuff.

I didn't say you should be replacing anything. Refer to my above post, almost everything you listed is available on the SonicWALL--minus the WAN features and Cisco proprietary stuff. Which is fine. I love Cisco stuff too--I'm not a SonicWALL fan point by. My only point was to the original poster, that perhaps he might be better of with a small feature-full box, instead of a huge bulky box that would use up a lot of power is all. Especially since the SonicWALL is easier to configure than a Cisco Box.
 
Especially since the SonicWALL is easier to configure than a Cisco Box.

Ya... OK. If you think that. Deployed a NSA 2400 and found it harder to do things that in a Cisco. Maybe it's because I'm use to Cisco, but still find somethings harder in the sonicwall that in a Cisco device
 
I'm ripping out my last Sonicwall at work in a week. We used to have dozens.

I normally use pfSense at home, but also have a Cisco ASA5505 and 1811 router. I've used any and all of them. Sure, the IOS router takes longer to setup initially, but is rock solid when its configured. Of course, it's significantly slower doing FW related duties than a dedicated firewall since it's CPU isn't up to snuff. (May or may not be a concern depending on IOS router model and your throughput).
 
currently i use a 2821 for my edge router duties, however some of that will be offloaded to the ASA5505 i bought when i upgrade license's to many people online in my house for the 10 user one LOL
 
You guys all really have some good points and for the most part EXACTLY spot on to what I was thinking.

The older cisco hardware is nice and I guess I wouldn't mind using it for home use, but then there is the noise and heat and power, for something like that I'd set up pfSense on an old box and be done with it

And buying new cisco equipment, well thats just out of the question LOL

In terms of HD streaming, VoIP, torrenting and all of today's modern comforts would deff be fun to set up on an older 2600 and if I could afford a 2800 but would it be up to snuff?

I really like the look of that sonicwall router as well, looks like its packed with features and things and at a decent cost:)

I also heard someone mentioned they use BGP between friends? How so and what for, I'm really interested.

As for me, my WRT54G v.2 and Tomato handles everything I throw at it, no complaints and I'm not really looking for a recommendation, I just posted for the sake of curiosity and to spark up some conversation regarding the topic

Keep em' coming ;)
 
FWIW, CPU speed matters. Many years ago, even on a lowly 1.5Mb T1, I used a Cisco 2620 as an all-in-one CBAC firewall, VPN, NAT, etc. router. The CPU was never taxed on basic surfing and it performed adequately.... or so I thought. I replaced it a with a lowly Sonicwall SOHO2 and their performance FLEW. The Internet just felt faster. Same 1.5Mb Internet T1, but the 33Mhz vs 133Mhz CPU made a difference, even if both could technically handle the full speed.

Now, I'm not saying I recommend Sonicwalls these days (I hate SonicOS), but you can't deny their performance and value.
 
You guys all really have some good points and for the most part EXACTLY spot on to what I was thinking.

The older cisco hardware is nice and I guess I wouldn't mind using it for home use, but then there is the noise and heat and power, for something like that I'd set up pfSense on an old box and be done with it

And buying new cisco equipment, well thats just out of the question LOL

In terms of HD streaming, VoIP, torrenting and all of today's modern comforts would deff be fun to set up on an older 2600 and if I could afford a 2800 but would it be up to snuff?

I really like the look of that sonicwall router as well, looks like its packed with features and things and at a decent cost:)

I also heard someone mentioned they use BGP between friends? How so and what for, I'm really interested.

As for me, my WRT54G v.2 and Tomato handles everything I throw at it, no complaints and I'm not really looking for a recommendation, I just posted for the sake of curiosity and to spark up some conversation regarding the topic

Keep em' coming ;)

For BGP stuff:

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1440954

A 2800 is too expensive for home, IMO. 3725/45s are much cheaper and will do the same, if not more.
 
site seems to be down... or do I have to be on the network to view it :-P
I read the peerix thread a while back when it started, and I'm hoping to participate now that I've got a real router, if you guys are still doing it...
 
The forum is dead, I took it down. No one is really doing much anymore, just me and a few others.
 
Back
Top