VPN for small office - 2811 vs RV series

[coconino1969]

Hello all

Need advice

I have a question regarding what equipment to use for a small remote office.

We currently have

• 5 users
• 5 7941 Phones
• 1 2811 (Serial, 2 FXS and 1 FXO)
• 1 3560g

All voice devices are controlled from a CUCM 9 in our main offices. The 2811 is also an MGCP gateway.

They currently connect via a T1, which management wants to disconnect due its high cost, the T1 is connected to a 2811 (C2800NM-ADVENTERPRISEK9-M) with the serial port and analog lines, behind the router we have a 3560G 24 port (POE) with everybody connected to it.

They have asked me to find out if its possible to switch them to a site to site VPN and possibly replace the 2811 and 3560g with a much smaller device perhaps an all in one.

I have been looking around and I havent seen any small business router that meets our needs. A fellow tech suggested looking into the RV series routers but I just don't see the devices providing voice services.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

[Robert Craig · Accepted solution]

Assuming you have a Cisco 2800/3800 series or better at the main office, I would stick with the 2811 router and do a site to site VPN tunnel. You can actually register the phones across the tunnel and then use SRST for fallback when the tunnel drops. Of course, that will prevent the phones from making and receiving calls without the tunnel, but they will at least be able to talk to each other. If you are really concerned with having at least one working phone when the internet connection goes down at the remote office, you could buy one POTS line from the telco and run it to your FXO port. That line would be used for emergency calls only in the event the tunnel drops. Regardless, the 2811 is way more powerful than the RV series (excluding the wireless part on one of the RV models).

[coconino1969]

Thanks Craig, I will keep the 2811.