I am looking to replace my SOHO router. I am looking at one which would have 802.11n if possible. No need for built-in ADSL router. And I would prefer IOS if possible.
But I don't have a million dollars to spend -:(
Is the 500 series ( SR520W-FE-K9 ) the only affordable Cisco router ?
This only only has 802.11g wireless.
Or am I restricted to Linksys products in the affordable range if I want something new ?
If I drop wireless requirement from a router, would there be any difference between an older router off ebay and a new SR520 ?
Any used router models you would recommend if I am to seek it off ebay ?
Oh, you can get quite alot of decent cisco hardware for less than a million dollars. :)
Affordable for you might be quite a bit different than affordable for somebody else... Cisco doesn't seem interested in going after the $100 router market..
Cisco is late to the .11n game, AFAIK, they only have one AP barely shipping that supports .11n. I wouldn't expect it to perculate down to all their product lines yet. OOTH, they do things like let you have
8-10 SSIDs on different VLANs, and other things that no consumer grade gear is ever going to support. Only 2 beacon SSIDs, but still that is more than Linksys is going to do.
You'd have to define what kind of throughput and features you want. For alot of things now-a-days, I wouldn't even look at a router for a network, and use a firewall product instead.
People assume all cisco routers are built for what they want to use them for, which is far from the truth. Many routers out there have pretty poor throughput, much less than people expect. Ie. you pick up a 2610, and you'll be looking at pushing 5-6Mbps through it. If you happen to have like a 30Mbps cable connection, its going to be a huge limitation for you.
You have to define what you are trying to do, and you expect to match with the very specialized defined Cisco hardware, rather than just you want a general router. As I said above, a firewall product may very well support you better.
Most of the 870 series routers can be had for less than $300. The Linksys are cheaper, but given the choice I tell customers to spend an extra $150 and get the Cisco. It's cheaper because I will charge them more for support in the long run. With a Cisco, it's pretty easy to diagnose a problem (if you know what your doing), while with the linksys its a lot of guessing. The Cisco also supports just about anything they would even need to do, while the LinkSys does things only one way and if what you need to do doesn't fit into that mold your s**t-out-of-luck.
Well but throughput is an Issue on the 870 Series. I am hooked up to a 100 Mbit FTTP Connection but the Router (871) is barely pushing 15 Mbit through the line. If you turn of IOS-FW and NAT you might get more but I recently got me an ASA in order to get my througput.
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