Can A Cisco 1721 Router Do These Functions Effectively

[dc5chris209]

Hey All,

I appreciate any input you can throw at me.

I am getting a network setup for my aunt at her office and she does not have the most expendable budget at this time. What I am looking to do it create less clutter in her network closet while making the network more secure/efficent. Currently she has a DSL modem connected to a Linksys Small Business switch to another netgear switch. Big mess!

I wanted to know if I could use a 1721 (They are easy to find at a good price.) with a ADSL card to eliminate the DSL modem, along with a VPN module to get a VPN connecton into the office while having some layer of security comming in and out of the office.

I know an ASA does does VPN & Firewall, but can the 1721 do the same thing if I get it all setup? Or is there no real solid replacement for an ASA in my enviroment?

[Richard Burts]

Christopher

I do not have experience with 1721 and ADSL so I can not speak to that aspect of your question. I have used 1721 for VPN and it worked pretty well. I was doing site to site VPN and I assume that you are talking about Remote Access VPN. While I believe that in general an ASA is a better solution for Remote Access VPN I believe for a small office, such as you seem to be describing, that a 1721 should work ok. And depending on the load you might not need the VPN module.

Be aware that it is not just a question of getting a 1721 at a good price. You need to make sure that the 1721 you are getting has the feature set in its software to support VPN. VPN requires a higher level (more expensive) license and I suspect that many of the 1721s that are available would not have the feature set that you need.

HTH

Rick

[Leo Laohoo]

I agree with Rick.

Just because you can get the 1721 and the WIC-1ADSL at a good price doesn't mean that you can also download the right software.

Check out Cisco Refurbished.

[Mr_Helpful]

First of all, you reference the internet-connection as being DSL, and you want to terminate that on an ADSL interface. I can only assume that means line is actually ADSL and not some other DSL-variety. Even consider the various ADSL variations...

As Richard suggested, the VPN module is not strictly needed. I would think you will definitely not need one, since you are describing a network that will need to support a few incidental home-users. Configuration-wise there is no strict limit on the number of VPNs you can terminate on that router (like on the PIX/ASA, where it is license-dependant).

Indeed (assuming you are planning on buying a used router) the software may be your biggest challenge, as I seem to recall the most basic software does not support IPsec.

btw:

in the description you give, I fail to see the clutter/mess you are clearing up by replacing the modem with a 1721.

And then it hit me... if it really is a MODEM she has, then there must be some other device that does the routing... Did you just omit it from the description, or is it not there. Because that might mean you have to change a lot more than just replace the router.