Recommended router for small business?

Kushan · 24-01-2014, 12:36

Hi all,

When it comes to home equipment, I wouldn't have an issue, but corporate stuff is way above my pay grade to understand.

Anyway, we used to just be on a basic DSL connection and have recently moved to a proper leased line. It's great and it works well, but I feel that our Draytek 2955 may not quite be up to the task of managing it effectively (we've had some issues with forwarding the same ports to two different IP's on our subnet, for example).

I'm just testing the waters, but what would people actually recommend? Cisco equipment seems to be the firm favourite but is there a particular model that people like? Are they easy to manage for someone without any proper training in it?

Any advice at all would be appreciated.

qasdfdsaq · 24-01-2014, 15:41

Openwrt.

For everything.

Kushan · 24-01-2014, 16:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq

Openwrt.

For everything.

And can you name a good 1U unit that uses it?

qasdfdsaq · 25-01-2014, 00:42

Take any decent Openwrt router and attach a pair of metal flaps to the side like you did with the Draytek 2955?

Kushan · 29-01-2014, 12:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq

Take any decent Openwrt router and attach a pair of metal flaps to the side like you did with the Draytek 2955?

The 2955 is a 1U unit?

https://www.formosa.no/media/2010/04/Vigor2955.jpg

MovedGoalPosts · 29-01-2014, 14:18

Yes that is a 1U unit, in terms of it's height only needing a 1 unit space if located in a rack. Of course to locate such a router, which isn't the full width of the standard rack, you need the accessory draytek shelf metal flaps thingy.

Kushan · 29-01-2014, 14:27

yeah I've probably not used the right terms there really. Any recommendations on a Rackmounted router, then?

MovedGoalPosts · 29-01-2014, 15:15

It is worth checking your firmware version on the Draytek is current?

Our office uses a Draytek Vigor 2920 so I can't give other recommendations. It does what we need it to.

Cisco might be regarded as one of the big names for networking. Given they have complete series of courses and qualifications they may well be well beyond your needs.

Assuming you are part of a smaller business organisation, can you not call upon an outside specialist IT company to advise?

Graham M · 29-01-2014, 15:16

No you've used the correct terms, all you do with a router like that is buy a pair of plates that go either side so that it can be fitted into a rack

Kushan · 29-01-2014, 15:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rob

It is worth checking your firmware version on the Draytek is current?

Our office uses a Draytek Vigor 2920 so I can't give other recommendations. It does what we need it to.

Cisco might be regarded as one of the big names for networking. Given they have complete series of courses and qualifications they may well be well beyond your needs.

Assuming you are part of a smaller business organisation, can you not call upon an outside specialist IT company to advise?

I've checked and we are on the latest firmware (October 2012 it's dated, so is perhaps nearing the end of its support). It does work ok, it just seems like it could be better.
I suppose I could ask an outside tech firm but it's really not essential. I was more just looking for an idea of what people tend to use, in case we ever decide we need to expend our IT budget quickly =P

Quote:

Originally Posted by Graham M

No you've used the correct terms, all you do with a router like that is buy a pair of plates that go either side so that it can be fitted into a rack

Which is apparently what we've done. Or it came with them, not really sure which.

qasdfdsaq · 29-01-2014, 18:06

Historically for myself and where I've worked we've always had bespoke solutions because we've always had highly qualified dedicated network teams to look after them.

Given Openwrt is infinitely flexible and runs on literally hundreds of different devices it all boils down to your required specifications and needs.

How many ports? How many downstream devices? What sort of load, traffic, security, is required, etc. What level of resiliency or redundancy do you need?

Hom3r · 29-01-2014, 18:55

Asus RT-N66U (Around £100)

I use this at home and should have the power to handle what you want.

It support both 2.5 & 5GHz at the same time, has a guest network access.

Matth · 30-01-2014, 00:49

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/secur...tek-vigor-2955 - seems to be a fairly competent unit.

How CAN you forward a port to different IPs, how would it kow which one it was meant for.
To support a port forwarded service that may operate from different systems (but only one at a time), you need to use port triggering, where a certain condition that results from using the application (eg. outgoing on a known port), can be set to trigger forwarding of the required incoming port(s) while that condition is met

Kushan · 30-01-2014, 08:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matth

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/secur...tek-vigor-2955 - seems to be a fairly competent unit.

How CAN you forward a port to different IPs, how would it kow which one it was meant for.
To support a port forwarded service that may operate from different systems (but only one at a time), you need to use port triggering, where a certain condition that results from using the application (eg. outgoing on a known port), can be set to trigger forwarding of the required incoming port(s) while that condition is met

It's not forwarding a port TO different IP addresses, rather it's forwarding ports FROM different IP addresses. We have a small block of 15 IP's and it could just be me making a mistake, but it seems that when I forward a port from IP x.x.x.2, I can't then forward the same port from x.x.x.3. Or rather, I can and the interface doesn't give me any issues, but the port doesn't actually forward. Again, it could just be me, the Drayek interface isn't the clearest thing in the world (and it's not the worst, either).

Quote:

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq

Historically for myself and where I've worked we've always had bespoke solutions because we've always had highly qualified dedicated network teams to look after them.

Given Openwrt is infinitely flexible and runs on literally hundreds of different devices it all boils down to your required specifications and needs.

How many ports? How many downstream devices? What sort of load, traffic, security, is required, etc. What level of resiliency or redundancy do you need?

"Highly Qualified" isn't a term I'd apply to my network skills. Give me a low level API or a programming task and I'm your guy, but networking? That's just the part time job :P

Anyway, it's not a massive deal, I was just putting the feelers out in case we could have been doing it better. Most people seem to think the Draytek should be good enough, so I'll persevere with it and see what happens.

qasdfdsaq · 30-01-2014, 19:57

Yeah, the heading up the infrastructure team at my last workplace had his email signature as his name followed by MSc PhD CEng MBCS CITP. Those are the sorts of people I learned from :P

Nonetheless, forwarding from multiple IPs should work just fine on the Draytek (I say should as in it not working is probably not intentional) but I know for sure they work fine on Openwrt.

If you were any nearer I'd offer to install an Openwrt system for you as an externalsubcontractor