Router Performance

[spottedowl]

I'm looking for guidelines to help me choose a router for my home network.

I have five users on a gigabit LAN running a mix of Windows and Linux systems. These are very active users running Bittorrent, online gaming, VoIP, and large file downloads.

The current WAN connection is a 6 Mb ADSL line, but AT&T is rolling out fiber to my area and I'm expecting to move to a 15-20 Mb connection within a year.

The router I choose will be running a stateful firewall, NAT, DHCP, and 1-2 VPN connections.

Which Cisco router series will meet my current performance needs and my future needs when I upgrade to a fiber connection? 800 series? 1800 series? 2800 series?

Price isn't an object--I'd rather pay more now to future-proof my network.

[wochanda]

This doc is getting a lot of use today:

http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/765/tools/quickreference/routerperformance.pdf

For the features you want, you might get away with an 1841, but if I was you i'd play it safe with a 2811.

The doc quotes the performance at 61Mbps, but if you're planning on doing VPN, FW and NAT i'd adjust that figure closer to 25-30Mbps.

[spottedowl]

Thanks. Would a 2821 be too much overkill?

[wochanda]

Depends on what you want to do. It may be more power than what you need, but there are a couple of other differences, to name a few:

1. Gig ports on 2821

2. Support for NME-X cards

3. Support for EVM cards

You can check out the two routers in detail here:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps5854/products_data_sheet0900aecd8016fa68.html