Hi to all in the forum,

I'm the sole System Administrator for a small business which has been slowly growing over the last few years from 12 employees to the current number of 32.

We currently have a hotchpotch mix of home and small business network hardware which up to now has served us well. However the hardware is getting old and the company is likely to increase in size further (to around 50 people) in the near future so I think it is time to invest in a more robust industrial solution. So I am looking to migrate to CISCO hardware. However my networking knowledge is very basic so am after a bit of feedback if the following solution is suitable.

Currently we have the following setup.

corporate network
LINKSYS SGE2000 (24 port gigabit switch)
DLINK DGS-1224T (24 port gigabit switch)
DLINK DGS-1248T (48 port gigabit switch)
BUFFALO WHR-HP-G54 as Router (running DD-WRT)

test network
Unmanaged Fast Ethernet switch
BUFFALO WHR-HP-G54 as Router (running DD-WRT)

company firewall
BUFFALO WHR-HP-G54 as internet router with firewall (running DD-WRT)


This is the plan and the CISCO equipment I have envisaged to replace the above

Stage 1 - Replace Switches
2 x Cisco Catalyst 2960-48TS switches to replace DLink and Linksys switches.

Stage 2 - Replace company firewall
Cisco 861 Integrated Services Router to replace Buffalo router/firewall

Stage 3 - Migration to VLANs
Install a Cisco Catalyst Compact 3560 CG-8TC (Layer 3) switch and migrate test and corporate networks to separate VLANS (Replacing the Buffalo Routers)

In the future we would probably split the corporate network further using more VLANS.

Does this seem like a feasible solution? Would the proposed hardware be able to handle an office of 50 people?

Any feedback on this would be highly appreciated!

Thanks a lot!

I think it sounds reasonable, though i would use an ASA (5505/5510) as fw.

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som om sinnet hade svartnat för evigt.

Get a 5512

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http://blog.alwaysthenetwork.com

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The 5512's will have more features added that the 5510/05 won't have. It will handle most of what you need right out of the box, get in contact with a Cisco rep and see what bundles you will need for your network

Hey guys, thanks for the feedback!

Reading this document ... http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collate ... tions.html ... I think that the CISCO IOS firewall in the 861 Integrated Service Router is probably sufficient for our firewall needs. The QoS feature of this model is interesting for us as well. The heads up on the ASA 5500 series was great though, cos of that I've learnt some stuff today!

I've also been in touch with CISCO directly to see if they can recommend me a reseller.

Thanks again!

the IOS firewall is not a robust firewall, and will not protect your network as a real firewall would,
you will need to see pricing for this ( i don't have access to the cisco pricing site anymore)
but you will be buying a base license and then buying the license to run the IOS firewall.
the cost of the second license may be more then the cost of a real firewall. you'll have to
check into that.

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"If you're good at anticipating the human mind. It leaves nothing to chance."
-Jigsaw

I know I'm kind of digging this thread up but if it's not to late I would say not to go with the 861 router. I would run with at the very least an 891. The 861 only supports 2 vlans ( I run an 861W here at home)while the 891 I believe supports 8 vlans. That will cover you for your corporate vlan, your test vlan, and also give you vlans for expansion in the future without having to replace your router so soon. I would personally go with something bigger yet but I tend to over design things in general.