[SGVLUG] Recommendations for > 100 MBbs routers

Wed Aug 17 00:21:11 PDT 2016

Hey Claude,

Here are a couple of suggestions for Cisco gear.  They are
professional routers with full programability and functionality.  The
interface is all cli which is freely documented... if you take the $6k
Cisco certification class.  Having taken the class I found I knew more
than the instructor before the class even started.  He couldn't get
the lab equipment hooked up so I set it up for the class, all without
training.  He thought I was a re-cert.

In the end the syntax is a bit obscure but the operations fairly intuitive.

There are dozens of 2k and 3k routers on eBay in the $70-$170 range.
Here's one picked at random for $90:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Cisco-3825-Gigabit-Router-15-1-IOS-CCNA-CCNP-CISCO3825-1-Year-Warranty-/262462974020?hash=item3d1c032844:g:npoAAOSw4q9XTgDy

It comes with only 2 1G ports, but comes with VPN, firewall,
encryption and a whole lot of expansion slots.  Voice, ATM, DSL, etc.
all fairly easy to add but if you are going to do a lot the modules
add up and you should buy a router already equipped.

Here's the technical detail:
http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/routers/3825-integrated-services-router-isr/index.html

Do your research, there are a lot of options and it's a fun project to
play with.  If you take a couple of days and work this out there is a
lot of application in the workplace.

One of the things I learned is that you need to make sure you get a
unit with maxed memory so you can download the latest firmware.  I
ended up paying an extra $35 for an expansion.

At the end of the day you can get a Ferrari for the same price as a
new VW if you are careful.

Matt
---------
Matthew Campbell
Storage and Cloud Strategy
Office of the CTO

Kaiser Permanente
99 S. Oakland
Pasadena, CA 91101

626-564-7228 (office)
8-338-7228 (tie-line)
818-314-9897 (mobile phone)
Green Center 3-North, 031W29
---------
kp.org/thrive

On Tue, Aug 16, 2016 at 9:45 PM, Munjal Thakkar <m00njal at gmail.com> wrote:
> +1 for the ubiquiti erlite 3. Router. You'll be amazed at how they perform
> for the cost. Google the brand, you'll find a lot on them, surprised you
> haven't heard of them.
>
> I've switched all my equipment, my clients, and my work network
> infrastructure to UbNt routers and their Unifi line of work equipment.
>
>
> On Aug 16, 2016 20:34, "Jess Bermudes" <jbermudes at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> A word of warning about the TP-Link router. TP-Link jumped the gun on the
>> new FCC regulations and tried to lock down the flashing of third-party
>> firmware. While it's not impossible, it can be quite the task if you're new
>> to the firmware flashing game. I have an Archer C7 you can play around with
>> at HAK this Thursday if you want to see it. I'll probably be trying to
>> restore the original firmware as flashing OpenWRT on it was unsuccessful for
>> reasons I won't know until I open it up and connect a serial cable to it.
>>
>> Were you looking for something specifically to run third-party firmware?
>>
>> On Tue, Aug 16, 2016 at 8:12 PM, Claude Felizardo <cafelizardo at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> So how much is a used Cisco pro router or a new linksys router?  I really
>>> don't need to know how to configure a cisco router.  I've never heard of
>>> Ubiquiti.  The Netgear's look pretty cool but a bit too expensive.
>>>
>>> I have been looking at the TP-Link AC1900 Archer C9 which is available on
>>> amazon for $120 but someone told me about the UTT AC750GW that supports
>>> IPSec/PPTP VPN, detachable antennas and multiple WAN ports which sounds very
>>> interesting as it can do link aggregation or you can configure it to send
>>> outbound traffic to different ISPs based on destination or source IP.
>>>
>>> http://www.uttglobal.com
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Aug 15, 2016, at 4:49 PM, Matthew Campbell <dvdmatt at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> I picked up a used Cisco professional router on eBay for about the
>>> same cost as a good Linksys runs new.  For the learning experience
>>> alone it was worth every penny.
>>>
>>> Matt
>>>
>>>
>>> On Aug 16, 2016, at 2:18 PM, Christopher Hicks <chicks.net at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>> I've had good luck with https://routerboard.com/ which supports 1G ports
>>> and has a rustic but usable web GUI.  You can get them as raw boards or
>>> integrated into rack-mountable package.
>>>
>>> On Mon, Aug 15, 2016 at 9:45 PM, Jess Bermudes <jbermudes at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> I've heard a lot of praise for Ubiqiti's stuff, and have used it in the
>>>> past and agree it's lot of bang for your buck, but I'm hesitant to give them
>>>> my full support when they're not a good citizen of the open source world and
>>>> actively violate the GPL:
>>>>
>>>> http://libertybsd.net/ubiquiti/
>>>>
>>>> On Mon, Aug 15, 2016 at 9:34 PM, Dan Buthusiem <dan.buthusiem at gmail.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> SmallNetBuilder's review of Ubiquiti's EdgeRouter Lite sold me on it,
>>>>> since it was able to hold 950 Mbps per port at a $100 price point. My
>>>>> Netgears aren't supposed to be able to hold much more than about 500 Mbps
>>>>> per port WAN to LAN, so I only use them as APs. It seems WiFi goes obsolete
>>>>> much faster than routers and switches, which is why I keep the access points
>>>>> as separate boxes from the rest of my network - having to take down my
>>>>> entire network for a different wireless box is annoying.
>>>>>
>>>>> I've got a dual WAN router I'm due to migrate off of soon, since it's
>>>>> nearing its EOL. If you'd like to borrow the ErLite3, I've got a spare you
>>>>> can play with for a bit. I haven't noticed anything else that beats it for
>>>>> its price point. Their Unifi APs look very tempting, too.
>>>>>
>>>>> As far as your modem question, there's nothing you should need to tune.
>>>>> I would look into its statistics page to see your speed profile, negotiated
>>>>> rate (the fastest speed your modem can manage to the node, based on line
>>>>> conditions), and your attenuation / noise. This way, you'll be able to see
>>>>> if your speed issues are due to poor line conditions or possible
>>>>> oversubscription of the node.
>>>>>
>>>>> Dan
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On Aug 15, 2016 4:51 PM, "Matthew Campbell" <dvdmatt at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I picked up a used Cisco professional router on eBay for about the
>>>>>> same cost as a good Linksys runs new.  For the learning experience
>>>>>> alone it was worth every penny.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Matt
>>>>>> ---------
>>>>>> Matthew Campbell
>>>>>> Storage and Cloud Strategy
>>>>>> Office of the CTO
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Kaiser Permanente
>>>>>> 99 S. Oakland
>>>>>> Pasadena, CA 91101
>>>>>>
>>>>>> 626-564-7228 (office)
>>>>>> 8-338-7228 (tie-line)
>>>>>> 818-314-9897 (mobile phone)
>>>>>> Green Center 3-North, 031W29
>>>>>> ---------
>>>>>> kp.org/thrive
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Mon, Aug 15, 2016 at 3:54 PM, Claude Felizardo
>>>>>> <cafelizardo at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>> > The TimeWarner bundle promo ended so the rate went up so I decided
>>>>>> > to
>>>>>> > give Giggle Fiber a try.  That's giggle with an I, not two O's.
>>>>>> > They
>>>>>> > bought out Champion cable in Arcadia/Monrovia so it's fiber to a
>>>>>> > node
>>>>>> > somewhere in the the neighborhood then coax to your home.  With TWC
>>>>>> > I
>>>>>> > was getting 80-90 Mbps down and 10 Mbps up, obviously capped for
>>>>>> > what
>>>>>> > I was paying but we'd get drop outs constantly and the speeds would
>>>>>> > vary so much depending on time of day.  Giggle claims on their web
>>>>>> > site that most users get over 300 and when I talked to them last
>>>>>> > year,
>>>>>> > they said because they do not offer cable TV and had fewer
>>>>>> > subscribers
>>>>>> > this meant they had plenty of capacity.
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > I had the installer pull a brand new cable and run it to my wiring
>>>>>> > closet because I was keeping TWC for TV programming and phone for
>>>>>> > now
>>>>>> > -- will try asterisk so Paul's talk was timely.
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > Using Giggle, the upload is hitting 20 Mbps up but down is less than
>>>>>> > TWC at around 50-70 Mbps which is a far cry from 200 Mbps so I was
>>>>>> > disappointed.  Now most of my equipment is 10/100 with cat5 home run
>>>>>> > to a wiring closet where I have the routers installed (TWC and
>>>>>> > Giggle)
>>>>>> > which can then connect to a switch in the closet then to various
>>>>>> > drops
>>>>>> > in the house including two with switches because I have more
>>>>>> > equipment
>>>>>> > at those locations.
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > I did upgrade one of the switches to a TP-Link SG108E which is an
>>>>>> > 8-port 10/100/1000 smart (web) switch with speed indicator LEDs
>>>>>> > (10/100/1000).  It has a menu option to test the connections and it
>>>>>> > will report cable lengths in meters as well as confirm connection
>>>>>> > speed.  Now the newest router I have is a TP-Link WDR3600 with N600
>>>>>> > or
>>>>>> > an older Netgear WNR200 both of which I was using when I still had
>>>>>> > DSL.   Both have 4 gigabit ports but no indicators lights.  Measured
>>>>>> > cable distance from remote switch to closet is 18m which is about
>>>>>> > what
>>>>>> > I expected.
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > For testing WiFi, the only AC device we haver is my son's
>>>>>> > smartphone,
>>>>>> > everything else is G or N speed.  For wired devices, the only thing
>>>>>> > where we could run some kind of speed test was the Xbox One and the
>>>>>> > best speed we saw was 140 Mbs down and that was when we connecting
>>>>>> > the
>>>>>> > Xbox directly to the modem and cycle power so it will give up an IP.
>>>>>> > Otherwise going through the WDR3600, we're getting usually slower
>>>>>> > than
>>>>>> > TWC for download but upload is much better which will be good for
>>>>>> > trying to backup to the cloud.
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > Now when I ordered Giggle Fiber, they suggested I get at least an
>>>>>> > AC1900 router, the installer pretty much said the same.  I could see
>>>>>> > doing that if we had more AC devices but since most of our equipment
>>>>>> > is only N speed, I was hoping that my wired computers would see a
>>>>>> > nice
>>>>>> > speed increase but I'm wondering if my older router just can't push
>>>>>> > the data fast enough.  Is this really the case?  The TWC rented
>>>>>> > Arris
>>>>>> > router has 4 gigabit ports and is doing better than the older
>>>>>> > router.
>>>>>> > I have not tried the WNR2000 yet because the specs say its only
>>>>>> > capable of N300 wireless.
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > So does anyone have suggestions for replacing my old router?  I may
>>>>>> > need to pick up another gigabit switch for the other room if
>>>>>> > replacing
>>>>>> > the router makes a difference. And the speeds has seemed to get
>>>>>> > better
>>>>>> > since the first day - do modems need to be tuned?
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > Claude
>>>>>> >
>>>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Christopher Hicks
>>> http://www.chicks.net/
>>>
>>>
>>
>