Router Recommendation

Hey folks, been with Zen quite a few years now, still on oldschool adsl1 though, looking to upgrade to vdsl2+ (I think that's what fttc is?).

I've an old (but good) Cisco 837 running at present, nicely configured for snmp (for graphing/monitoring purposes) and such via IOS. I'd like a similar, but more modern Cisco (or something as good) that has about equivalent configuration abilities (as in tons), but including wireless functionality, too. It would be preferable if the wireless antennas were removable to allow for external antennas (or extension cables for externally-mounted indoor antennas) to be plugged in as I've a property about 100 metres away, in line-of-sight, that I'd like to be able to reach too if possible.

So, does anyone with experience with this kind of hardware have any input on what's good out there these days? Are there any good Cisco routers still about, or should I be looking elsewhere? I'm really not clued-up at all at present as I've not really followed things for years.

Cheers.

Before you mentioned the requirement of integrated wireless i was thinking the Ubiquiti Edgerouter Lite might be a good fit. It runs EdgeOS which is a fork of Vyatta (a networking-specific variant of Debian).

If you're willing to pair it with an external wireless AP (Ubiquiti also sell their own that are feature rich and well regarded), it would still be my recommendation.

I'm not familiar with Cisco IOS, but EdgeOS/Vyatta command-line configuration is supposedly somewhat similar (although more similar to Juniper's JunOS) and, as it's Debian-based, you have access to the software repositories if you want to make it do something beyond the capabilities of the base system.

The Edgerouter and Unifi access points over VLANs are probably what i'm going to switch to when i next upgrade. The Edgerouter also crushed a Cisco 3925 costing 65 times more. ^_^

Edited by deleted (Tue 22-Jul-14 21:48:07)

Asus RT-N66U £105 over on Amazon

A beast of a device and take a look at Merlin, Tomato or DD-WRT firmware which gives you possibly way more config options than you need. Wireless antenna detach, and even space for a micro SD on the PCB for some nifty internal NAS storage.

Hi! bro
Would you mind to change a style? According to your request, reminds me of the recently launched HUAWEI E8278, but this is the router with modem, supports the power adapter, the coverage of about 100 meters, if you do not like, Huawei E5186 might be a good choice, it's download speed can up to 300Mbps.

I'm a big fan of Tomato, used it for many years, but the problem is that it's hampered by using the proprietary wireless drivers and so is stuck on an ancient kernel lacking modern features. Tomato also uses NVRAM to store configuration which is limited to 32KB (60KB on newer devices) which may be an issue if the OP wants to configure it up the wazoo.

If the OP wants to go with a consumer router then i'd recommend something that can run OpenWrt. OpenWrt is a full-fledged embedded Linux distribution with configuration done in text files in the file system (can also be configured by web GUI or command-line UCI). It uses opensource wireless drivers and comes with a recent kernel (Barrier Breaker currently has 3.10.44).

If "N" wireless is sufficient then i'd say the TP-Link WDR4900 is still the best router out there. It uses a powerful PPC processor rather than the weedy MIPS processors most routers use and the processor has crypto extensions which should boost throughput if the OP runs any kind of VPN server on it.

I still think that, for a power-user, the Ubiquiti route is the way to go though.

This Cisco 887VA-W does VDSL2+ and wireless.

I run a non wireless 887VA on a Zen FTTC connection without the Openreach modem and will be running a second from a week tomorrow. The current connection is a long way from the cabinet so only gets about 36Mbps down. The new connection should get at least 72Mbps so that will allow me to get a better idea of throughput.

I should add that neither 887VA runs NAT, VPN or firewalling so the processor load will be lower than if used as a one box solution.

The Cisco 867VAE also does VDSL2+ but there's no wireless. There are two advantages over the 887VA; it has a gigabit ethernet port and it doesn't have a fan. You would have to have a separate wireless access point but that would allow you to get a dual band product.

Another forum member, jonathanjo, has an 867VAE running on Zen FTTC without the Openreach modem.

Edited by caffn8me (Wed 23-Jul-14 08:40:21)

VDSL2+ ?

It's early, I meant VDSL2

I'm too decaffeinated to think straight

Thanks, I was beginning to think a new standard had been added without telling me

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Asus RT-N66U £105 over on Amazon

A beast of a device and take a look at Merlin, Tomato or DD-WRT firmware which gives you possibly way more config options than you need. Wireless antenna detach, and even space for a micro SD on the PCB for some nifty internal NAS storage.

+1 for the asus,

There is also a good support forum for the EdgeRouter here. Nice thing about the EdgeRouter is that it feels like a "proper" router but software upgrades are like consumer routers in that they are FREE!

Thanks for all the replies, folks. I will go and have a good read up on each of the devices mentioned here.

Given you have an 837 now I'd recommend the 887va. Nice kit.

Hi All

I've had my Cisco 867VAE-k9 in place for about six months and it has been faultless. Works both with and without BT's modem: I have it running directly connected just to cut out one box and PSU and to get better quality numbers. I believe there's a 867VAE-W-K9 with wifi too, but haven't seen it: I have separate Cisco Access Points on the network.

One of my clients has about a dozen going into various places around the country, all with different ISPs, and some with ethernet-supplied internet connection; the main benefit of this model being they only have a little change to make to the config and it works whatever internet connection has been put in. They have them configured with a VPN of tunnels so that their sites appear a single private WAN (192.168.sitenumber.0/24) which has eased their management load considerably, and while you find the appropriate protocols in many routers, the Ciscos are ridiculously capable for different protocols. An example of the features they didn't know they needed: SNMP so they can graph the traffic to resolve problems with different ISPs.

You need to be comfortable with command-line configuration as they don't have any (meaningful) web interface; and they have a one-time password feature which means you have to be ready to configure it over your ethernet the first time you switch it on, or you have your own console cable (not supplied). (Happy to elaborate on this if anyone needs the info.)

In service however they really are performing fantastically well. We are finding them about £200 new from online suppliers.

Hope that helps someone.

Kind regards,
Jonathan.