Recommendation for Remote Teleworker Setup with UC520

Luis Giraldo · ‎07-17-2010

Hello there colleagues!

I'm moving my business to an office (and out of the bedroom...!), but would like to be able to retain the capability of dialling out of my business phone lines from home. Without getting into configuration details which I can sort out later, I'm looking for a high level recommendation of the specific hardware that may do this job the best. I'm not looking for the most economical solution necessarily, but rather something that gives me the best combination of performance and value, leaning towards performance.

Here's what I've got going on:

At the office:

1811 Router (with VPN tunnels to my client networks - needs to remain a gateway)

UC520 - currently behind the 1811, but can get it's own public static IP if necessary

Home

??? - Router - with dynamic IP address service from ISP (have been looking at the 891

??? - Wireless Access Point (perhaps built-in to router, if it has N capabilities)

7925G Phone or something else?

I've considered putting an SR520 at each location, and following the SBCS method, but am curious to hear some alternatives.

Looking forward to any recommendations the group may have.

Thanks a million in advance,

Luis

David Trad · ‎07-17-2010

HI Mac,

It would seem in this instance your 1811 is the core and everything you do will be centralized around it.

Possible Options:

Run the Cisco VPN client on a PC and create a tunnel back to your office from home and use a Cisco CIPC, this is workable and actually works quite well
Purchase a SR520 or in my opinion a 877W and any of the SBCS phones with power packs and use a desktop phone, or if you don't mind spending the money a 7921/25 which will talk wirelessly to the 877, the 800 series can support 5 and more VPN tunnels depending on which one you purchase, so it has some expandability.
A 8 User UC500 at home That is something crazy that I would do and also run the home phone of it as well, I run a phone system at home now myself as it helps keep the Telemarketers at bay, they don't seem to like the IVR i have in place . A small UC500 is actually not that expensive, and in any event is a god option if you want to build robust setup.

I am sure others will have more options for you to look at, this is just what i would look at when planning it out.

Cheers,

David.

Cheers, David Trad. **When you rate a persons post, you are indicating a thank you or that it helped, but at the same time you are also helping to maintain the community spirit - You don't have to rate posts and you wont be looked down upon :) *

Luis Giraldo · ‎07-18-2010

Thanks David - all great suggestions.

I like the CIPC idea, but it's not available for Mac (at least not for CME, for CM yes), and I'm Mac-based.

The 877W sounds good, but is only G wireless, and I'll be doing lots of media streaming so N is critical. The 891W actually has dual-band radios too, so that's an awesome bonus. I think the value in the 891W is amazing.

UC500 at home was an option, but don't have wireless in it, and if I add it, would only be G.

I'm leaning towards this option:

Office (voice segment of the network):

-UC520 on a public IP

Home:

-891W

-7925G

Anyone else vouch/vote for the setup above?

Thanks in advance for opinions/suggestions!

Regards,

Luis