Home lab topology feedback

I have created two different topologies for what I plan with cisco equipment I will have soon. Wanted to see if anyone had any suggestions or might see any potential issues. I am thinking of doing the second alternate image so that I can keep all cisco equipment together. Also possibly if the fan of a single 1841 router might be to loud for my living room area.

Can the 1841 handle my uverse 45 Mbps speed? I know it won't run 100 Mbps in reality.

Is the 1841 enough as far as security from the outside world. Could it provide a similiar enough firewall compared to the consumer grade Buffalo wireless router.

I do not have a static Ip from AT&T. I currently use a dynamic dns service from through Synology that I used for VPN server on my Buffalo router. Can I assume I could create a VPN on the 1841 so that I can access my network while I am away with my laptop.

I want am planning to keep an option to put the Buffalo wireless router back into it's original function when if ever needed/desired. I could just easily restore a config. I currently have some routers in a GNS3 VM on my 2012R2 server connected to the Buffalo device routing onto the internet.

Basically my knowledge is at CCENT level with several years of basic networking experience. I have started into ICND2 training recently. I plan on getting more equipment later and could still utilitze GNS3 for certain things I can do with the currently equipment such as L3 switches or possibly some spanning tree stuff.

Images also on google drive in case they are too small to see:

First Image:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BzMJvNl_cG9KSWJhSEpuZkhKZ0E

Second Image:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BzMJvNl_cG9KNzh5TVZlWTVydlU

Lab setup.jpg

LAN-alternate.jpg

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Comments

clarson

1841's have only a single fan and are very quiet.

The 1841 can probably handle the uverse. But, when you start do routing and pat and acls/firewall and vpn/encryption that could put a load on it. But, you have a simple network so routing isn't going to be a big deal. I don't see a lot of users, so if your the only user, your probably not going to notice anything. But, if you are running a website with quite a few hits, maybe those users will.

The 1841 can probably do a better job at security than your buffalo router. And, you can set it up to be a vpn. But the 1841 is a managed device. Which means there needs to be someone with the knowledge to properly configure it. Is that you? And, cisco stopped doing sw maintainence about 2 years ago. So, as hackers are getting smarter, the 1841 isn't keeping up. But, then if you aren't updating the software of the buffalo router, it isn't either.

wseyller

Thanks for the feedback. Beside NAT there may not be much ACL's happening but maybe there will be reason's to later on. The VPN won't be used much as I connect to it rarely when I am away. I don't run any other service to the outside WAN connection. The game consoles is my kid who plays games and watches youtube vids. I have other devices such as computers/laptops/android devices but it isn't a whole lot. No video or phone service coming in through uverse.

With security I just wanted to know if it was capable. I figured dedicated routers could be firewall but aren't there main function and a dedicated firewall could be a router but is not it's main function. The buffalo consumer router has many thing integrated such as router/firewall/wirless/switch ports, etc.

Using an 1841 as my internet gateway is just an idea at this point. I will probably test it out temporarily but I will backup configs so that I can easily interchange them in minutes. With some time I can learn how to do what I need. I don't need a super high secure facility but don't want to be left wide open for attack.