What Cisco Router to buy?

123skeeter · ‎04-11-2008

I have a Medical Clinic that has 9 Docs with wireless Tablet PCs and about 12 other hard-wired PC in the network.

They current connect to the Internet through a Linksys BEFSX41 Router, using a 24 port Linksys switch behind it.

It was suggested by their EMR Application Service Provider that a different router might speed up their applications.

Can anyone shed some light on this and make suggestions if a change is prudent?

Thanks in advance.

paolo bevilacqua · ‎04-11-2008

Hi, in theory a cisco router should not speed up anything, however what is your connection to the internet ? If adsl you could use an 877w for example, that would allow you to configure VPN, do QoS and few more useful things.

Joseph W. Doherty · ‎04-12-2008

"It was suggested by their EMR Application Service Provider that a different router might speed up their applications."

Such a suggestion is a bit unusual. Often many Internet performance issues are more due to insufficient bandwidth. You might follow-up with them why they suggest looking at the router.

PS:

I see the BEFSX41 Router supports two VPN tunnels. From a 3rd party performance review, performance is about 2 Mbps. So if you're using VPN, a different router could be better for such.

Same review notes firewall with advanced firewall protection supports about 15 Mbps and with with it off, about 30 Mbps. Either likely to be sufficient for "normal" small office Internet access. However, if you're also using if for local office LAN routing, unusual for only 20 clients, it could be a bottleneck.

PPS:

You might also want to insure the router's firmware is current, lots of fixes in release history.