We are a small networking company that offers VOIP services to small business. In the past we have used 2 other router brands and had good luck with simplicity in configuration for QoS and ToS for VOIP services but they have since been discontinued. We are a Cisco reseller. We dove in to the Small Business series equipement with the SA 500 series and have been completely disappointed with the lack of performance and basically un-useable QOS features (basically it doesn't work and the whole QoS and performance problems are well documented).
So we are looking at the 800 series line, specificaly the 881 router. I'm look for simple honest opinions if you will. I have a base 881 on order now and hope to get in it later this week or early next.
Basic requirements
Client location and our asterix box at hosted colo. All phones would register to asterix over internet.
Simple client with say 3-8 phones (Cisco small business SPA phones). Cable modem internet, 8mbx1mb (some have better, some have 6mbx768k). Simple firewall features needed, possibly a server on the inside with OWA webmail or remote desktop workplace running but no heavy traffic.
In many situations the phone count might go to 10-15 phones.
Some of our clients may have DSL backup line for failover, but not common.
Some clients need SSLVPN and/or S2S VPN tunnels (ipsec).
In some cases we may have a small office with 10-15 phones that have a phone system already and all we need to bring is dialtone. Not sure if the 881 can handle that or not.
I would also like to say I am NOT a VOIP person - I'm more a pure networking guy. By boss is tasking me with finding a router we can use in straight network environments and something we can use in our voip locations. He keeps pushing Microtik crap and various cheap almost home based only routers (which I understand they work but lets be real - I'm not putting one in a medical office with 20+ users).
Ideas? Recommendations? I would REALLY prefer to stay with the Cisco line if I can but as I said our office has a bad taste rigth now with about 40 SA500 units out in production now and basically they all suck in a voip environment. Yes, we have contact Cisco SBS - they have attempted to assist with rebuilding 3 or 4 different configs in different ways and nothing works. Many discussion forums on the SA series about voip quality issues and not one yet has been resolved.
Erc
