All Cisco RV Routers EOL. Perhaps new CBR line coming?

[WAB-IT]

So the Cisco Small Business RV340, RV345, RV 160, RV260, RV345P, RV340W, RV260W, RV260P and RV160W VPN Router has all reached EOS & EOL.  That's every small business router that Cisco currently has.  Per Cisco, there is currently no product migration replacement available for these routers.

• End-of-Sale and End-of-Life Announcement for the Cisco Small Business RV340 and RV345 Series.
• End-of-Sale and End-of-Life Announcement for the Cisco RV 160, RV260, RV345P, RV340W, RV260W, RV260P and RV160W VPN Router

I think there is going to be a new router product line introduced called CBR (Cisco Business Router), that will be white in color.  To match the CBS (Cisco Business Switch) and CBW (Cisco Business Wireless) small business product lines that have been recently released and are white in color.

Why would Cisco be holding out from announcing the replacement for the RV routers?

[JasonReg416LGK]

Anything to add here?  Cannot find any indication of this anywhere I look.

[JasonReg416LGK]

Well it is officially fall .... tick - tick - tick ......

Anyone hearing anything?

[CoreyP319]

Nice to see so much support for the RV series. No official word, yet.

[GKToronto]

It's disappointing that they've not extended the end-of-life, until a replacement path is identified/announced/available. With less than 40 days until October 28, 2022 (when security updates will cease), I've already started looking at alternative brands.

My needs shouldn't be that hard to satisfy (i.e. a dual-WAN router that has 10 Gbe ports, so that it can handle a primary FTTH connection (8 Gbps recently available here in Toronto) and a backup/secondary connection via failover...the RV series was great, except it couldn't go beyond 1 Gbps (and of course, it's not getting the security updates beyond Octover 28, 2022). Put in a faster CPU and faster network WAN ports, make the End-of-life be 5+ years from now, and it would seem to do all I need....

[CoreyP319]

Hey GKToronto,

There has not been much action on development, so I can see that being frustrating. I'm really at the tail-end of product launches, so I'll be last to know, that said I have not seen any Cisco Business based routers in the pipeline. From a top-level Cisco perspective, I know there is much work being done to unify the product portfolio into Catalyst/Meraki. I think there a decisions still being made in this regard, but its closer than ever to being put into action.

Your feedback on the specs are spot on for what should be on the next platform. I've shared it with our team immediately. 

If anyone else cares to share input on what features would be welcome, I'm happy to share it along with the team.

Thanks again GKToronto.

Corey

[james wine]

I guess I would simply like to echo that, being 11 days from EoL (security) for the RV series, to have nothing yet to replace them has got us looking elsewhere to solutions.

I get that things for the new (hypothetical CBR) might be taking longer than expected, but as a good-faith effort to support your customers who want to convince our management that staying with Cisco for this scale system is a good idea, it would be nice to see the security support date pushed out far enough that we can safely acquire, test, and plan deployment of replacement systems.

[JasonReg416LGK]

Pretty gutted that there is neither a replacement avail, nor a commitment to maintaining basic security updates and/or software critical fixes for the RV line.  My Security license expires this week and SW/Security fix support ends next week so this weekend will see me replacing the RV340 I suspect.

For those in a similar situation, where have you gone?  Any recommendations?  I have similar requirements to @GKToronto - should not be this hard.

Thanks in advance,

[JoeAverage]

I have several dozen RV's across numerous sites. Cisco's apparent lack of direction on providing a replacement has me switching to Ubiquiti. Unfortunately, the Ubiquiti EdgeMax routers are extremely difficult to source and this brought me back to looking at what Cisco might have as a replacement for the RV. Cisco appears to have seriously dropped the ball on this. Thankfully I have several Ubiquiti routers left & will continue on this path. Returning to Cisco is still a possibility but not in the near future.

[TimmyT]

I am not happy with my RV-260W.  The spec sheet makes the following claim:  'Command-line interface via console' but that was always a RUSE!!!  There is even a thread about the FAKE console port here:  https://community.cisco.com/t5/routers-small-business/cli-on-the-rv260/td-p/4087400  In addition to the falsely advertised Console Port / CLI support, the Multi WAN via USB was completely chopped out when I did a Firmware upgrade.  The folks at Cisco decided that about halfway through the life of the product that it was necessary to take AWAY USB support.  See the thread about removing USB support (new and previously supported USB devices) here:  https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/routers/csbr/RV260/USB_Compatibilty_Matrix/RV26X_compatibility_matrix.pdf    Cisco will no longer support USB modems/dongles for RV260/260P/260W models. We will
stop providing firmware updates for all previously supported USB modems/dongles across all RV series models, effective immediately.

If you are looking for a replacement, I would suggest a web search for "RV260W" and "Reddit"... It seems like most people are starting to look at Cisco alternatives.  I am certainly in that camp especially with my miserable experience with this RV260W.

[CoreyP319]

Hello all,

Still no news on a CBR line that I can see. This includes the roadmap items that we have visibility on through the end of the year.

Re: the console port, the note about the functionality of the port is not clearly indicated earlier in the data sheet where the console port is listed. It is however noted in the Management row, screenshot below.

On the RV340 data sheet, its much more clear. I've routed this feedback to the team for updates.

Re: dongles, it appears the vendors selling the dongles ended support and Cisco is basically saying the dongles may or may not work. We cannot support a device that is not supported by the manufacturer.

[TimmyT]

Re: dongles, it probably wouldn't be much ongoing work to support USB tethering.  I know all of my Android phones and various hotspots can provide my Windows VMs of almost every flavor (XP, 7, 10, etc.) with a connection.  In support or not, USB tethering is something y'all at Cisco should consider.  I mean, it's basically a generic network interface, no?  I couldn't imagine that would take much ongoing effort to keep a feature like that supported into the distant future.

[CoreyP319]

Thanks for your feedback, I've shared it with the team responsible for tracking these suggestions. I think Cisco is in the midst of some big changes. Small Business will inherit many of those changes, but it takes time to propagate across the whole product portfolio. Feedback like yours is what should make the difference when the time comes to discuss 'what's next' for routers. But I don't get those meeting invites, so I'll keep this thread posted when I know more.

[TimmyT]

Re the console port, I will say that even CDW got it wrong when they list SSH and CLI under their remote management specs for the RV260W.  I know that's an issue for CDW, not necessarily Cisco, but CDW had to get tis information from somewhere, right?  Here is the link to their specs:  https://www.cdw.com/product/cisco-small-business-rv260w-wireless-router-802.11a-b-g-n-ac-desktop/5374597#TS

I mean, if the console port is non-functional and for a future that is likely never ever going to come, can you really advertise that CLI and SSH are remote management protocols?  For instance, how do I SSH into this RV260W?

CLI and SSH

Console