Looking for guidance from the Cisco Small Business gurus. I have used an RVS4000 v1 for some years now as part of my domestic network. In particular I have an extensive Sonos distributed audio system, and I use the RVS4000's Static IP Mapping feature to assign a fixed IP to each and every Sonos box. It all works perfectly.
However, earlier this year my ISP (Virgin Media) upped my broadband service from 20Mbps to 60Mbps, without extra cost. Very kind of them, excellent! Their new SuperHub was initially installed in its factory default state, mainly because the several technicians who got involved with it's installation did not know how to go about putting it into Stand Alone Cable Modem mode. I did not want to use either its router, switch or wifi access point, preferring instead to stick with my perfectly good Cisco alternative {RVS4000+3xWAP4410Ns}.
After they gave up, I successfully altered the firmware revision and box settings to put it to SACM mode. But first I checked its speed. As supplied, it came in at about 63Mbps download and 2.8Mbps upload. The same speedtest.net test once set as SACM, and connected to my RVS4000 got just around 21Mbps download, 2.8Mbps upload. Disable the RVS4000 Intruder Protection System (IPS) and throughput matches the SuperHub on its own, 67Mbps down, 2.8Mbps up.
My conclusions...
1) The upload speed is virtually a constant irrespective of my equipment configuration, and will be ignored for the rest of this post.
2) Because of the need to open every packet for inspection, my RVS4000's processor just cannot handle this amount of data, and effectively is throttling my throughput down to the same rate I was getting before my ISP improved the service. So now I have a 60Mbps service, but unless I disable IPS, cannot actually get the benefit of it. Not good enough!
After lots of reading on the various Cisco sites, I recently purchased a Cisco RV042G router. Its 800Mbps spec suggests throughput will not be an issue. An in fact that is confirmed by running speedtest.net, where results of 62Mbps/2.8Mbps are surprisingly marginally lower than the RVS4000/IPS Disabled, but OK. I now also discover that the RV042G does not have IPS.
My network-savvy colleague said "To be honest IPS is a luxury you don't really need IMHO. You must be in a tiny minority in terms of home users with such a feature. It's such a drain on resources because it's examining the contents of every packet to see whether it recognises an attack signature. Standard residential gateway routers don't do it. They have a regular NAT function, which automatically blocks any unsolicited inbound connections, and a firewall to keep out any broadcast traffic."
Given his comment, and my experience with the two routers, I am on the verge of returning the RV042G for a refund as it seems to be adding nothing new that I need. But first I would like to hear the considered opinions of the community users:-
1) Simply put, should I just stick with my RVS4000 and run it with IPS off, as I have it set now?
2) How important is IPS in a domestic setting?
3) Is there another similar Small Business product that I should be looking at? I do not particularly want a router with integral wifi, but I could consider replacing both the RVS4000 and the adjacent WAP4410N with a suitable all-in-one.
Comments please ASAP, as I am running out of time to send the RV042G back to my supplier.
