Users supported against router modle?

[alalli]

Good Day Everyone,

I am looking around the Cisco site for a table showing the Cisco router model number against the number of user supported.

I have had a sales person ask me if an 1841 would support 20 users with the possiblility to grow to 50 and in my opinion; I dont think it will do it.

I am looking around for some documentaion to back that up.

I would have thought that 20 users would need a 2800 or possibly a 3800 to support all of the additonal users.

I have seen these sorts of tables before, just cannot seem to find it now.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Amanda Lalli-Cafini

[spremkumar · Accepted solution]

Hi Amanda

User population is not the only or the main factor to decide on the router model, it all depends on various factors like the amount traffic (bandwidth) the router is required to handle, the routing protocols to be configured on the router and also other features like voice/security etc.,

It also depends on what kinda link termination you are going to have at your end for the end users, what is the future plan in upgrading the link or enabling any other features etc.,

User base plays a important role when you are planning for a lan switch since no users gets translated in no of ports required on the switch side.

regds

[lal.antony · Accepted solution]

Hi Amanda,

This might give more information in selecting the correct router and model to satisfy your requirements.

http://www.cisco.com/web/partners/downloads/765/tools/quickreference/routerperformance.pdf

Mainly below is what I usually factor in when selecting a router for a client.

• Bandwidth
• WAN Connection Type (Ethernet, ADSL, 3G etc,) and modules to support those WAN connectivity
• Routing protocol and update route sizes (Memory and CPU becomes factors based on this)
• Number of Users is mainly factor in for a router selection through number of connections per second it can handle, but this is a bit harder factor to calculate and also best to calculate way more than what you think is required to be on the safe side.
• Features like Voice, Security, VPN , QoS is another factor that put load on a router and the ability handle those features is important as well.

hope that helps, if you have specific requirements in mind let me know I can assist in selecting a good router/model for you.

Cheers

Lal Antony

www.lalantony.com

[paolo bevilacqua · Accepted solution]

You have been give the correct aqnswer in other replies, however even going with the simplest metric of number of users (that is NOT a correct approach), even an 871 would be fine for 20/50 users.