Hello everyone,
The sysadmin at work requested my help to revamp the company's network. However, I do not have an IT role in the company but I'm currently attending a networking course at university and will be having my CCENT exam in a few weeks. The sysadmin is not very knowledgeable in networking and he asked for my help. In addition, I have zero experience working in a production environment and have only messed around with my home lab. I'm more than willing to help him out since i'm dying to get some real experience setting and up and configuring a network.
He asked me to suggest a router to purchase, with the given requirements:
- Budget: Under 1000 £ GBP (Ideally around 500 £) just for the router, we already have all of the other devices.
- 4 VDSL ports, or 4 modems? Which one would you recommend? The sysadmin told me that he wants to bond the 4 lines. Now, I'm not sure if he agreed that the ISP would do the bonding and we would get a single line, or if he wants to do the bonds locally, which I assume he does since he gave me his requirements which I've listed here and he does state 4 VDSL lines. I'll update the post soon when I talk to him again on Monday.
- Minimum of 2 Ethernet ports, ideally 4. Gigabit Ethernet would be nice but not necessary.
- 1 WAN Ethernet Port.
- VPN capable, with IPSEC
- No Cisco support
I've included a topology below, just for visual purposes. Please note that the topology below does not accurately represent the network topology, It's intent is to give a visual representation of the router requirements. Any advice or suggestions are greatly appreciated. We will be purchasing in the UK, second hand routers are actually preferred since we can get them for a better price. Thanks in advance.
