850 Series Router Question

[corey_eubank]

Ok. I want to start small and get some experience in Cisco routing. At home, I have DSL (1.5 Mbps up and 3 Mbps down) from my local phone company (Windstream) but may switch to cable in the future. I want to put in a Broadband router and I am thinking that the 857-K9 is the one I need. Am I on the right track or can someone help me get on the right track?

[sachinraja]

hello corey,

yeah.. you are going on the right track.. you can have a look at this URL, which gives a variety of routers with the WAN interface cards supported.. all these routers are non-modular routers and fixed configurations..

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/routers/ps380/prod_models_comparison.html

Before buying, just check with the ISP once on the WAN interface card that you must have.. if it is G.SHDSL, you might have look at other routers too !!! Talk to them and get a router from the list in the URL above.

Hope this helps.. all the best.. rate replies if found useful..

Raj

[corey_eubank]

Thank you. Quick followup before I rate this one. In looking at it, it looks like the 851 may work equally as well so long as I keep the ISP's modem, right?

If I do that, then I wount have to worry since the connection from the modem to the router would be Ethernet right?

[tekha]

Exactly, you want the one with a Ethernet WAN if you want to use the same router for both dsl and cable.

And yes, you would have to keep the ISP's dsl- or cable-modem, in order for everything to work.

You may find that the ISP is using a router and not just a modem, in case they do, you should bridge the ISP's router.

[sachinraja]

Hello Corey,

yeah.. u r right.. but why exactly do u want the cisco 851 router then?? to extend the LAN or for wireless?? I guess most of the routers/modems given by the ISP these days come with 4 port cards... wireless is also an option these days.. if the link terminates on the ISP given router/modem, why would you require another router? My advice will be to avoid the ISP router and terminate the link on your router (depending on the services given by the ISP), and to reduce the hardware components...

Hope this helps.. all the best.. rate replies if found useful.

Raj

[corey_eubank]

Thank you. Yes, I am wanting to extend my LAN. The DSL modem has only one Ethernet port and does not run DHCP. In the past, I have used a local domain on my LAN to serve DHCP and the internet has been served through a proxy server (which was also my local domain controller). No that my kids have all left home I do not need to use the proxy server anymore but want to provide unrestricted access to the internet. I bought a cheap Linksys broadband router, which lasted about 3 months and died. (yes, I know, Linksys is a part of Cisco) I already have a Linksys WAP that has worked great for the past year or so, although it did not pass DHCP requests back from the Linksys router like it did with my windows DHCP server.

I know that there are less expensive options, but I believe this little router will allow me to learn a little about the Cisco IOS which might come in handy when I decide to start preparing for the CCNA.