Cisco 819 and Cisco 2702i vs top prosumer (R7000, WRT1900AC, RT68P)

Any do any tests between a commercial/enterprise setup and the others in a home environment? I am a Network Engineer and have access to a AP2702 and an older 819 ISR router. I can configure both no problem (it's obviously more work than a GUI, but I already had a Wireless 819 here that died so I have the router and AP configs already written.

Just curious if anyone A/B'd this kind of setup.

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If you have cisco hardware that uses cisco IOS unlike the cisco RV series than it would obviously be better than a consumer router. I use mikrotik and i prefer them much more because they are a lot more reliable and their features actually work properly whereas in consumer routers, things like dual WAN are limited and may not work, guest network may not be isolated from private LAN.

You might want to check if the device was under a lot of heat before it died. Some enterprise devices accept a various range of voltages so if you can use the lower voltages since using a higher voltage will destroy the device faster.

Hi Alkemyst,
I've run Cisco (IOS and RVs), Mikrotik, Ubiquiti, and all flavors of *WRT firmwares in my home-office, and usually notice smoother operation from IOS gear (of course), MT and UBNT (90+% of the time) and even with most revisions of Tomato and Gargoyle as long as throughput needs aren't crazy. The open-source stuff, though, is a bit more of a mixed bag when trying to find stable releases for certain firmwares, with DD-WRT being a prime example (it can be great, or an absolute mess, at random it seems... more so than any other third-party firmware I've tried - YMMV).

All in all, if you've got access to full-blown Cisco and you're comfortable in IOS, by all means stick with it for routing. I'd be apt to say the same for the Aironet, but I've also had great results with Unifi, certain EnGenius models, and other brands of managed wifi (Ruckus, even Zyxel, etc), so wifi is perhaps a little less clear-cut, but nonetheless if you can grab a 2702 for free or dirt-cheap, do it.

Thanks, I have a 2702i and 2702e on my desk now and getting 867 for my ac adapter and 270-300 for my n adapters throughout my house now.

Just need to find a router now.

The screwed up thing is someone Intel ProSet won't show up in Windows 8.1 anymore since my reboot last night. I have no idea WTF happened I am working through it now with installs/uninstalls and an sfc /scannow running.

I feel more comfortable with Cisco, it's my day to day life.

I think the main reason the average person on this site does not use Cisco IOS devices is the maintenance cost for software updates and the trouble to actually setting up a maintenance contract for one router. Cisco does not seem to be interested in small clients.

Cisco devices once configured seem to be more reliable than consumer devices used on this site but this is probably true for all pro gear.

Just make sure the router is not capping your bandwidth.
Yes, the Cisco IOS devices can be used to hammer in the nails they will be hung on for the next 10 years . . . but they may also be obsolete by then.

Mind you, I have personally used an 819hg for a 200mb/s connection without maxing out the CPU but that was just some basic routing. Be mindful of this.

coxhaus said:

I think the main reason the average person on this site does not use Cisco IOS devices is the maintenance cost for software updates and the trouble to actually setting up a maintenance contract for one router. Cisco does not seem to be interested in small clients.

Cisco devices once configured seem to be more reliable than consumer devices used on this site but this is probably true for all pro gear.

Click to expand...

Maintenance is not required, but Cisco is leveraged to medium to large business types. Cisco does have a small business line up now, but I have not a lot of experience with it. Usually the lowest level I deploy at is 2960's in the switch world and 28/29/38/39 level routers. Most of the cores I am doing now are Nexus / VSS based.

That said going out and spending $1300 on a pair of AP's doesn't make sense for most in a home environment, but I had access to these devices and figuring them out helps me do my job better.

As far as the router goes I am leveraging the TG862G-CT Arris I have. My network is simple, there is no elaborate routing or access-lists in place. I am replacing this as soon as I can locate a better device as there isn't much reporting it can do on CPU level and the like and I don't care for my ISP having access to a device on my network that they can reconfigure.

For the PROSet issues, the problem was even though I am an administrator on my Windows 8.1 box; I had to explicitly run the installer as an Admin or it wasn't fully installing the executables.

I am getting -30-35 signal levels in my office and -35-45 on the opposite end of the house now. Speeds are very good and my ping times are about half what they were with the C819 (16ms vs 32ms).

Alkemyst said:

Cisco does have a small business line up now, but I have not a lot of experience with it.

Click to expand...

They are pretty much crap, limited CLI and limited feature set compared to other SOHO devices.
Cisco low end swithes don`t even have accesible CLI.

Etz said:

They are pretty much crap, limited CLI and limited feature set compared to other SOHO devices.
Cisco low end swithes don`t even have accesible CLI.

Click to expand...

Well the assumption at the small business level is the end user will be the one setting it up and not an engineer. Still having a CLI is something I have always preferred 9 times out of 10. For a small business though, mostly your are looking at only a couple VLANs if that and simple switching and routing to the WAN.

I have not heard good things about the line up and it seem to change drastically generation to generation. The Catalyst series seems to be more consistent over the years with simply more performance and capability added on top of an existing software model.