Cisco IOS

[RazorBlade]

I stumbled across this website by accident a few days ago and found a collection of very good information. This website is about home networks but it often describes SOHO networks as well. On the other hand, some “home networks” are nearly enterprise like networks. What surprises me is that SNB goes nearly all the way but suddenly stops before it really gets interesting.

What I mean is that there is no discussion of Cisco IOS hardware. This surprises me because Cisco also has a line of SOHO routers and switches that do have the IOS. For people who are unfamiliar with IOS, it is a commandline OS that is used to control Cisco “enterprise” switches and routers. The nice thing about IOS is that it gives you nearly an unlimited amount of configuration options because it is almost like a programming language. I wonder therefore why you don’t take that extra step and talk about really interesting network devices?

 

[stevech]

I wonder therefore why you don’t take that extra step and talk about really interesting network devices?

Cost versus intended audience?

 

[thiggins]

In general, SNB's audience skews more toward consumer / prosumer as indicated by relative interest in reviewed products.

Which IOS products are you referring to as "SOHO"?

 

[RazorBlade]

Costs are relatively low. If you just look at the cabling in a relative small house then that is expensive as well. The cabling tubes that I used were 25 euro for 2 meters. I needed about 16 meters so that was already 200 Euro. Then I used a total of 10 wall jacks. Each cost about 15 Euro, so that is another 150 Euro. Then a patch panel which costed 60 euro. 200 meter Cat 6 FTP cable, which is 120 Euro. 20 patch cables, 50 euro. Total costs for just the cabling 580 Euro. But just the cabling does not do anything.

An “enterprise” type router is not something that you buy every year. You should consider it as a part of your house. You don’t buy a house without electricity either, or do you? In modern houses you get already all the cabling in the wall, just like the electricity cables. The biggest providers in the Netherlands already announced that they will offer 500 Mbit up and down before the end of the year, and I have already 120 Mbit.

Yes, a few years back you just hooked up one computer to the Internet. Nowadays everything seems to have a network connection. TV, media player, audio equipment, smartphones, tablets, game consoles, NAS / server, etc, etc. Some people spend more than 700 Euro on a smartphone or a high end videocard, others buy a router.

Thiggins,

I consider the 800 serries routers SOHO and the small formfactor 2960 switches. I have a Cisco 891 router and a Cisco 2960 8 port switch.

 

[thiggins]

Thanks for your thoughs. But I would say you are not a typical consumer.

At any rate, I'm afraid you'll need to look elsewhere for coverage of Cisco IOS products.

 

[RazorBlade]

Thanks for your thoughs. But I would say you are not a typical consumer.

That is absolutly true. On the other hand, does the "typical" consumer exist? I read a couple of articles in the Lan & WAN basics, and I would argue that some of the things that are described are not done by typical consumers either.

Anyway, it was a suggestion I wanted to make because I thought that a part of the visitors might be interested. Without a doubt you know your own visitors much better than I do, and what is even more important, you know best of all people in which direction you want your website to develope.

I will stay arround to learn things I might not know, and I might be able to help others with networking questions. Keep up the good work!

 

[stevech]

To me, the typical consumer is bewildered by the need/purpose of a router. Much less port forwarding so their home IP camera is exposed to the 'Net.

And so on.
My brother-in-law cannot remember the difference between cellular wireless and WiFi wirleless, nor that he has the WiFi password written on a crib sheet that I politely told him a dozen times to remember it exists and where it is.

Same for many other friends and family. I think this is typical of these folks make up 98% of the users of home networking. They have a life and computers are a tiny part of it, unlike we avocational geeks.

This forum certainly applies to us geeks, and more so, to the home users in stretch mode.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

I stumbled across this website by accident a few days ago and found a collection of very good information. This website is about home networks but it often describes SOHO networks as well. On the other hand, some “home networks” are nearly enterprise like networks. What surprises me is that SNB goes nearly all the way but suddenly stops before it really gets interesting.

What I mean is that there is no discussion of Cisco IOS hardware. This surprises me because Cisco also has a line of SOHO routers and switches that do have the IOS. For people who are unfamiliar with IOS, it is a commandline OS that is used to control Cisco “enterprise” switches and routers. The nice thing about IOS is that it gives you nearly an unlimited amount of configuration options because it is almost like a programming language. I wonder therefore why you don’t take that extra step and talk about really interesting network devices?

If this site talked about Cisco IOS..it would "really get boring", IMO.
For many years I've done SMB consulting for a living..SMB being Small to Medium Business networks.

Many years ago in some small businesses with larger budgets, I would find some Cisco hardware at the edge, often the little PIX 501 or 505 models (I have a pile of them collecting dust somewhere because I replaced them at clients with something better). But these days, unless it's CPE (customer premise equipment installed by the ISP)...we really don't see Cisco gear in the SMB. Not to mention smaller SOHO stuff. There are just too many other decent brands out there that are equal in performance or reliability, cost less, are many many times easier to install, setup, and configure, and often offer more.

 

[RazorBlade]

If there are better, newer, cheaper products out there that can do more than Cisco IOS then by all means tell about it. I am in no way fixed to Cisco. I am not a Cisco engineer, and certainly not a cisco sales person. The only thing that I know is that you can do a lot more with Cisco IOS then with regular consumer type routers.

But I am very currios now which other brands you are talking about and which features can't be done by Cisco equipment.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

It's a combination of all of the above. Features, performance, for the price...factor in support.

My colleague focuses on larger and more enterprise consulting (where I focus more on SMB), he has quite a bit of Cisco gear out there. Don't forget, Cisco certified engineers command huge hourly rates. Typical SMB budgets cannot afford that. And then there is the yearly support contracts...that come with higher end equipment...adding to the cost of equipment.

Cisco IOS is a bit for old school Cisco guru's...these days more and more is done via the GUI, and Cisco config maker.

I disagree with "The only thing that I know is that you can do a lot more with Cisco IOS then with regular consumer type routers."...you're comparing an interface (IOS), against a "consumer type router". That's not something you compare. The proper comparison would be to take a specific consumer router and compare it against a specific Cisco router.

Cisco makes decent products...good stuff that can be very stable and maintain performance under higher loads. For high end stuff I actually prefer Juniper, but Cisco is standard best practice stuff for enterprise. But for SMB type setups, IMO it's too pricey for the SMB budget.

 

[PontiacVibe]

I am so glad I click this thread!

I am familiar with 2960 myself and love the feature set it comes with it, but for SOHO, the 2960 is out of my reach~ I mention it in this thread: http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=6815

Than you mention about the 2960 SFF!!! Which one do you recommend? Any fanless operation switch?

WS-C2960-8TC-S seems to be the lowest price with no fan! But no gigabit~ And what's this LAN Base vs LAN Lite Entry?

WS-C2960G-8TC-L is the perfect IOS/Gigabit/fanless switch with LAN Base, but the cost is very high~

Looking into comparable switch, the Procurve 2520-8-PoE and 2520-8G-PoE is better price and has PoE! But never use a procurve before...

 

[sfx2000]

I stumbled across this website by accident a few days ago and found a collection of very good information. This website is about home networks but it often describes SOHO networks as well. On the other hand, some “home networks” are nearly enterprise like networks. What surprises me is that SNB goes nearly all the way but suddenly stops before it really gets interesting.

What I mean is that there is no discussion of Cisco IOS hardware. This surprises me because Cisco also has a line of SOHO routers and switches that do have the IOS. For people who are unfamiliar with IOS, it is a commandline OS that is used to control Cisco “enterprise” switches and routers. The nice thing about IOS is that it gives you nearly an unlimited amount of configuration options because it is almost like a programming language. I wonder therefore why you don’t take that extra step and talk about really interesting network devices?

Cisco IOS is incredibly powerful - one of the best in the business.

The learning curve to make even the basics work - beyond the cost of consumer grade equipment, and the support costs for a free hotline.

That is why Cisco bought Linksys - good enough generally works. Linksys was very, very good at shipping things that generally worked...

Having been there, designing a Wimax-Wifi-LAN gateway with NetBSD (BSD is equally powerful at routing compared to Cisco IOS) - we had to put in a nice GUI, not just for the end user, but also for the Customer Care folks...

Give Cisco credit though - their online documentation and tutorials are first rate, and there's a lot of knowledge that can be gleaned from what they offer - the challenge is how to convert it from "the Cisco Way" of doing things...