ASR 1001 for Home Router

[edison65]

Hey folks, I’m not as up on the router portfolio lately, but I’ve seen some recommendations to use the ASR 1001 in traditional home situations.

I have a 1G/100M cable modem connection with an Arris Surfboard SB8200 (DOCSIS 3.1) and would love to tinker and learn/refresh on a proper Cisco router. The ASR1001 is reasonably priced but old. The 1001-X gets a little out of my price range.

Is the 1001 a good platform to take over routing duties from something like pfSense and Firewalla? If so, any additional WICs needed for this kind of config?

If not can any of you routing aficionados make some suggestions as to models I should be looking at?

Thanks!

[M02@rt37]

Hello @edison65,

The ASR 1001 is a high-performance router primarily designed for enterprise and service provider networks. While it is a powerful and capable router, it may be overkill for a traditional home situation with a 1G/100M cable modem connection.

The ISR 1000 series routers, like the Cisco ISR 1111X-8P or ISR 1100-4G, are ideal for small branch or home office deployments. They provide integrated routing, switching, and security capabilities in a compact form factor. These routers offer a cost-effective solution without compromising on performance.

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/routers/1000-series-integrated-services-routers-isr/datasheet-c78-739512.html

It's also worth mentioning that pfSense is robust software solution that provide firewall and routing functionalities. Perfect for a home solution too.

[Leo Laohoo]

Look at the size of the power supply and see if your budget will support operating a continuous power draw like that. 

Next, if you can tolerate the noise it makes, does the router have ample location to keep itself cool?

If all the answers are "yes" then make sure you find someone who can configure it for you because an ASR 1k is a powerful machine that is ideal for a home internet gateway if it is configured correctly.  If the router comes with the correct license and firmware version, ZBFW would be ideal to turn on.

[Joseph W. Doherty]

". . .  but I’ve seen some recommendations to use the ASR 1001 in traditional home situations."

Really?  (I'm not doubting you, just surprised anyone would make such a recommendation.  [As @Leo Laohoo  mentions, if nothing else, they can be relatively noisy in a home environment.])

". . . would love to tinker and learn/refresh on a proper Cisco router."

Ya, would be a good box for those purposes.

"Is the 1001 a good platform to take over routing duties from something like pfSense and Firewalla?"

Well, in the past, Cisco Enterprise routers often didn't do something like PAT (fixups) as well as many inexpensive consumer home "routers".  Unsure how much they've caught up.  Usually, their FW features aren't as nice as FW products (one reason FW products are still used).  As @Leo Laohoo also mentions, much also would depend on what features are supported (permitted [licensed]) on ASR too.

If you only need two Ethernet ports, recall that's standard with the ASR 1001.  I.e. probably not.

"If not can any of you routing aficionados make some suggestions as to models I should be looking at?"

For your tinkering and learning, probably cannot do much better than the ASR 1001, especially if it has a recent IOS with all features enabled.

For a "practical" home gateway, unsure I would endorse for such a purpose.

[Richard Burts]

As far as routing/switching side of things the ASR1001 would be a fine (and probably overkill) suggestion. I have some concerns about the security side of things. Zone Based Firewall is about as good as you can do on this router. But that is not in the league as compared what you get with pfSense.

In reading the original post again I notice reference to  (DOCSIS 3.1). If that is important in your current environment I do not think you will get it with ASR1001.