Good, Solid Router to replace 2600....

Deathmage

Hey guys,

I'm using the 2600's in the lab and they work good for learning, but these serial connection's probably aren't really fast. The 3550's are more capable than the 2600's and I'd like to get some more beefy inter-vlan routers and/or replace the 1721 edge router (if I can upgrade it with a 10/100 or even 100/1000 wic card) that have 100/1000 wic card or slots.

Right now the cisco lab is being used by my Microsoft 2008 R2 domain (all 4 of them) in the ESXi 5.5 cluster and it works but its pushing at 100 mbit and I want 1000 mbit. Right now the traffic flows between all 4 forests perfectly fine, it's just not fast, lol! ... good thing the iSCSI fabric is on a HP 2848 moving at 9000 on the MTU and gigabit or else this would be painful!

Anyways if you guys know some replacements that would be awesome, would need two inter-vlan routers or a more beefy edge router. If it's possible to do OSPF on the 3550's then I'd just need a better edge router. I could remove the inter-vlan routers altogether if that's the case..

JeanM

I like 18xx series myself, no need for gigabit router on edge unless you internet pipe is fiber or something imho.

I am using gigabit l2 switches for my esxi, and 100mbps ethernet routers/l3 switches where it doesn't matter for bandwidth.

So basically things such as connectivity between nas etc is on gigabit, but rest is doing just fine on 100mbps.

clarson

the 3550-12T switch has 10 gigabit ethernet ports (12 if you count the gbics). The 2821/51 routers have two gigabit etherent ports.

Deathmage

clarson wrote: »

the 3550-12T switch has 10 gigabit ethernet ports (12 if you count the gbics). The 2821/51 routers have two gigabit etherent ports.

hmmm... may look into that 2821 on ebay. My cisco edge router would be connecting to my HP Procurve which is gigabit. but while my home speed isn't gigabit, it's dam near 100 mbit, so a 1000 mbit router would be awesome!

JeanM wrote: »

I like 18xx series myself, no need for gigabit router on edge unless you internet pipe is fiber or something imho.

I am using gigabit l2 switches for my esxi, and 100mbps ethernet routers/l3 switches where it doesn't matter for bandwidth.

So basically things such as connectivity between nas etc is on gigabit, but rest is doing just fine on 100mbps.

Hmmm... let me lookie see, I agree if the demarc isn't gigabit it seems like a waste. Is there a L2 gigabit switch with a high backplane and jumbo frames?

rowelld

The 1841 is an excellent router and can be used for future certification studies.