cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
cancel
3018
Views
0
Helpful
12
Replies

SUggestion for Home use router

FranchiniA
Level 1
Level 1

Dear Cisco comunity,

 

I'm new here so forgive me if this is not the right section.

 

I come from 2 broken consumer level routers (Asus AC68U) and I'll never buy anymore consumer routers again.

 

My question is, what specific router model would be a good choice for me?

 

For now I don't have any special network infrastructure, but I need a stable and fast connection.

 

At Home I have around 8 devices connected to my router (not always at the same time), most of them are computer.

I also have a NAS for backups and movie/music media server.

I usually surf on internet, play online games, watch movie, etc.

 

I know that most consumer level routers would do these tasks without problem, but I feel like a pro model will help me to avoid future headache just beacause the router isn't made for stability.

 

2° Question: Professional routers are way more difficult to set up than consumer one or not?

 

Thanks to everyone and hope my english was clear enough!

 

Best regards,

 

Andrea

 

12 Replies 12

The "Pro" routers for home-offices are the Cisco 800 series. But without specific knowledge, they are really hard to setup and configure. A bit more expensive but probably the easiest to setup would be a Cisco Meraki MX64.

Thank you for your kind answer.

1° For the cisco 800 Series there's maybe a tutorial or a documentation which I can use to setup correctly the router? As I said I don't know much about networking, but informatics is my field, so it shouldn't be too impossible to make it work, or not?

 

The cisco Meraki has an integrated professional firewall, which I don't need and I also think it focuses more on cloud services, than home system (it also has a limited out/in transfer rate due to the firewall).

 

2° If I had consumer network necessity (websurf, media streaming, game, low latency, ...) would there be any downside by using a business/professional class router (bad gaming performance, LAN streaming issues, media streaming protocols not supported) or they should just work as good as consumer one ?

 

Hope my two questions are clear enough, by the way my budget is around 300-450 $.

 

Thanks again for your time.

First and quite important: Every network connected to the internet should use a firewall. Also with an 800 router, you typically use the firewall features and not only NAT/PAT to protect your network from the internet.

For setting up an 800 series router for internet connectivity, there are probably thousands of tutorials available. At minimum one would fit your needs, still it's much to learn to understand what the device is doing.

What kind of WAN connection are you using? DSL, cable, Ethernet ... ?

And there is another solution that should be considered: You could use a used Cisco ASA 5505 firewall for that.

Thanks again for all the infos.

 

I know that in you should have always a hardware firewall (and if I'm not wrong any router has one), but I was talking about a professional one, that may need special maintenace.

I see just know that most of the 800 series has just fast ethernet port, which is absolutely not possible for me. Am I wrong?

 

I live in Switzerland and my service provider is UPC Cablecom, they use the television cable (I think coax cable) to transfer internet. My signal is a stable 125 Mb/s DS. As I said unfortunately my network knowledge isn't good. How I can understand if my modem support ADSL, VDSL, ecc?

If I'm not wrong that's my model (http://wwwch.upc-cablecom.ch/en/tc7200.u_user_manual_eng_v17.pdf)

Please don't get me wrong, but I would avoid used products as much as possible.

 

Just to help more I'll explain my home network:

Out of the wall comes the coaxial cable from my service provider. The coax goes into the modem/router provided by my SP. The modem is in bridge mode to allow me to use other router. Out of my modem goes a 30m CAT.7 cable, after that, before it died, I had have my router (Asus AC68U).

 

Ok, for 125 Mb/s, there is not much available from Cisco for your budget.

What you need is a router/firewall with one Ethernet WAN-port (preferably Gigabit) and one or more LAN-ports.

All the 800 routers are too slow for that, and the bigger boxes are all more expensive.

There are also the RV-models from the SmallBusiness-Line. They are positioned somewhere between consumer- and professional devices.

More expensive but probably very good would also be an ASA 5506 which is a dedicated firewall but is a perfect border between your network and the internet.

This ASA 5506 looks like a good choice for me, it's also a 2015 model (right?).

The price is around 400-500 $, which isn't too far away from my budget.

 

Are there any downside from buying dedicated firewall over normal router?

I mean, everytime you say firewall, I think, I may not work for what I need, but you seem pretty sure about what you say, so it should do everything good and it also has a pro firewall integrated, right?

> Are there any downside from buying dedicated firewall over normal router?

typically no. What you basically need is:

  • a device that does address-translation of your internal addresses to the provider-assigned IP.
  • Protects your internal network from attacks from the internet
  • gives you some flexibility in configuring access-control
  • doesn't slow your connection down

All that is available on the ASA 5506-X. A "real" router has typically much more flexibility for network-integration, but that is likely not needed here.

Just because it's a dedicated firewall-appliance, it doesn't mean that the "normal" routing-stuff can't be done.

> but you seem pretty sure about what you say,

The secret to success is sincerity. Once you can fake it, you've got it made.  ;-)

Ok, now this ASA is starting to look like a real solution for me.

I also noticed the RV220W (http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/routers/rv220w-wireless-network-security-firewall/index.html), is it a good choice too or the ASA will perform better?

 

From the RV^series, there's a model which you would suggest?

 

Whit my Asus I reduced the DHCP range to 249 to allow my to set easly static ip. It this also a possible thing in these cisco's routers, or there are other solution?

Hello, Karsten, hello Franchini!

I just want to notice one thing against ASA5506 as a router for home. As far as I know, it doesn't have a built in switch. So all ports are ports, where you have to configure an IP-address.

But usually, SOHO routers do have a builtin switch, so you can connect your home devices without having any additional hardware.

Please, see the following discussion:

https://supportforums.cisco.com/discussion/12456891/asa-5506-x-switchports

Thanks for your answer.

 

Essencially it means I can't use the other ports (as I normally do with a 4 lan ports Router) because each one must be setted up?

Yes, that's a drawback of the 5506. All ports are routed ports and with that, they have to belong to different IP-subnets. For multiple devices, you need to connect a small switch to the ASA.

Got it!

After some reserch I think I'll buy a RV series model.

The 5506 looks like a great product but I'm not a network specialist so probably I would mess up with it.

 

For now the more interesting one is the Cisco RV-325 (http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/routers/rv325-dual-gigabit-wan-vpn-router/model.html).

You guys think it may works good for what I need?

The internal hardware is powerfull enough for my 125Mb?

It's a 2013 model, aren't there any newer one?

 

I think that thanks to all your help, I may find a solution even today!

Getting Started

Find answers to your questions by entering keywords or phrases in the Search bar above. New here? Use these resources to familiarize yourself with the community: