Cisco 850 Series Routers

CrimsonAvenger · 24 Jul 2006 at 14:05

Looking at some of these for my home/office setup.

Anyone used them at all ?

Thanks in advance

growse · 24 Jul 2006 at 14:42

They're amazing. Do you have any Cisco IOS experience?

CrimsonAvenger · 24 Jul 2006 at 15:10

Nope, not got any experience at all.

But I can learn

Whats so good about maybe choosing one of these over the cheap and nasty Netgear/Linksys and the more expensive Vigors pls ?

zetec452 · 24 Jul 2006 at 15:18

CrimsonAvenger said:
Whats so good about maybe choosing one of these over the cheap and nasty Netgear/Linksys and the more expensive Vigors pls ?

Its a Cisco

CrimsonAvenger · 24 Jul 2006 at 15:22

JonRohan said:
Its a Cisco

<g> I know..........but they also produce the Linksys range too - yuck!

growse · 24 Jul 2006 at 17:06

Yes, but I think cisco put a little bit more time/effort into their enterprise range, as that's what makes them all the money.

It's enterprise-grade stuff, so it's reliable, high-performing, and extremely versatile. Thing is, you've got to know how to use it to get the benefits from it though. If you're just going to wander in and use the web-based setup, then you're probably wasting your money. If you're willing to learn IOS, make lots of mistakes, tear your hair out over why something won't work, you'll probably end up using it well, and learning something at the same time.

Sone · 24 Jul 2006 at 20:53

com'on an 857 is pretty simple, most cisco kit isn't too hard to setup basic configs, the beauty of IOS.

CrimsonAvenger · 24 Jul 2006 at 21:20

Cheers for your opinions...........still wondering if the Cisco kit is worth it over the Vigor - esp. as its about a 100 more.........could get both I guess and give them a test run

derfderfley · 24 Jul 2006 at 21:55

The 800 series are Cisco's SOHO range of routers.
They are good, but for the 'average' home user they are probably overkill, as they are not the easiest things in the world to configure. But they do offer a degree of flexibly (and as a rule reliability) in their configuration that you really aren't going to find in anything else in the price range.

A thing to note is make sure if you buy one that it's on the latest version of IOS you can get (or get a agreement for the supplier to provide you with it on CD), as they are (in general) not freely available without a CCO login or support contract.

Saying all of that, if you want one, and are willing to do a bit of reading, buy one they are good pieces of kit.

In fact in front of me right now (and looking after my internet connection) is a 837 and a Pix 501, overkill? probably but it does give me a rock solid connection back into the office, and allows me remote VPN access back into home should I need it.

Oh and it gives me some kit to play with, and do development work against without having to worry about stuffing up customers kit

growse · 24 Jul 2006 at 22:47

Sone said:
com'on an 857 is pretty simple, most cisco kit isn't too hard to setup basic configs, the beauty of IOS.

True, but if you're just setting up a basic config, and want to forget about it after that, buy a [insert generic consumer brand here]