Routers are the heart of connectivity infrastructure, intelligently steering data packets from one network to another. Cisco Systems supplies 90% of the world's routers and has developed a broad catalog that features routers engineered to deliver the security, throughput, and dependability features demanded by organizations of any size. Routers from Cisco have built-in support for redundancy, automatic failover, and redundant power for improved fault tolerance and network uptime. These capabilities allow businesses to build a strong structure for an IT network that can easily expand as you support new users, open new offices, install new services, extend your network to customers and vendors, and build a more mobile workforce.

Cisco Routers for Small, Midsized and Enterprise Businesses
Cisco's integrated services routers offer an advanced solution that minimizes network outages and stabilizes connectivity to the most business-critical applications. Cisco's concentration on combining new services with high speed enables companies to create WANs that are more intelligent, more resilient, and more reliable. For organizations of all sizes that need fast, secure connectivity to their mission-critical programs plus a foundation for future expansion, Cisco routers offer a portfolio engineered for secure, fast delivery of simultaneous voice traffic. Cisco's latest routers incorporate protection and voice support within a single routing system that accelerates application installation and reduces maintenance expenses and hassle.

SB 100 Routers
Cisco's SB 100 Series of routers offers an affordable Cisco router for data-only networks in small businesses with up to five workers. SB 100 options include Asymmetric DSL (ADSL), ADSL, or an Ethernet WAN version with a four-port 10/100 switch. Each version provides protected access with integrated stateful firewall and support for Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS)-based VPNs. In addition, an easy-to-use setup utility, Cisco Router and Security Device Manager (SDM), permits users to set up the SB 100 and its built-in firewall, and remote management capabilities in Cisco IOS Software allow easy installation and centralized support.

Cisco Small Business 100 Secure Broadband Routers have been replaced by Cisco's 850 and 870 routers. Progent's network support experts can assist you to manage your existing SB 100 devices and help you migrate to more advanced products.

Cisco 800 Series Access Routers with Integrated Services
The Cisco 870 and 850 Access Routers are fixed-configuration routers that provide highly secure, concurrent services over fast connections in small remote offices, teleworker, and small company locations.

Cisco 850 Series access routers are targeted at small networks, ideal for as many as 10 users or for teleworker environments where simply secure and affordable access is required. Cisco 850 Series access routers offer safe access with Stateful Inspection Firewall and IP security VPN support for small LANs, four-connection 10/100 Ethernet switch, secure wireless option with a single fixed antenna, and simple configuration and integration and remote management features via Web-based utilities and IOS Software.

Cisco 870 Series access routers are targeted for small offices, recommended for as many as 20 users or for teleworker sites where advanced voice/video over IP and reliable connectivity utilizing standby broadband connections are needed, in addition to secure connections. Cisco 870 Series access routers deliver excellent speed for broadband connectivity in small offices as well as enhanced security via capabilities such as Firewall, IP Security VPNs, Triple Data Encryption Standard (3DES) or AES as well as Dynamic Multipoint VPN (DMVPN) and Tunnel-less Group Encrypted Transport, IPS, and virus protection through NAC and enforcement of safe connection policies.

Cisco 870 Series access routers also provide industry-leading QoS, 4-connection 10/100 Ethernet managed switch with Virtual LAN capability, secure wireless option with use of multiple antennas, easy setup and integration through Web-enabled utilities and off-site management capabilities via IOS Software, and PoE support for IP phones or external wireless access points.

1800 Series Integrated Services Routers
The scalable Cisco 1800 family of integrated services routers combine data and security into a single robust system for fast, expandable access to strategic business programs. The Cisco 1800 Series design has been purposefully developed to meet the requirements of small and midsize organizations, enterprise branch offices, and service provider-managed services environments for access to concurrent services at high-speed throughput. The integrated services systems design of the Cisco 1800 Series routers delivers optimum versatility and fast ROI.

Engineered for protected data access, Cisco's 1841 router offers notable added value compared to older generations of 1700 Series devices by delivering more than a fivefold performance increase and integrated hardware encryption activated by an optional IOS Software security image. The 1841 router significantly increases plug-in card slot throughput and density in comparison to Cisco's 1700 Series while still maintaining support for over 30 available Wide Area Network interface cards and multiflex trunk cards (VWICs-for data only). The Cisco 1841 device offers further enhancement of VPN throughput with an optional VPN acceleration add-in; an intrusion prevention system and firewall functions; support for a wide array of connectivity needs, including support for optional integrated switch ports; and enough performance and slot density for future network expansion and advanced applications.

Cisco 2800 Series Routers
Intended for small to midsize businesses (SMBs) and enterprise satellite offices, the Cisco 2800 Series consists of several basic versions: the 2801 router, the 2811 router, the 2821, and the Cisco 2851 router. The Cisco 2800 Series routers offers substantial additional value in comparison to prior models of Cisco devices at comparable prices by delivering as much as a five times throughput increase, as much as a 10 times improvement in security and voice performance, built-in service features, and radically improved slot performance and density while maintaining support for most of the over 90 popular modules in use today for the 1700 Series, the 2600 Series, and the Cisco 3700 routers.

Cisco's 2800 Series offer a variety of high-quality simultaneous services at high speed up to multiple T1/E1/xDSL links. 2800 Series routers provide embedded encryption acceleration and on-the-motherboard voice digital-signal-processor add-in slots; intrusion prevention system and firewall functions; optional internal call handling and voice mail management; high-capacity interfaces for a broad array of tethered and untethered access options; and sufficient throughput and slot density to handle further system growth needs and new applications.

Cisco's 2800 Series offers a range of common protection functions such as a Cisco IOS Software Firewall, an Intrusion Prevention System (IPS), IP security Virtual Private Network, Secure Socket Layer (SSL) VPN, powerful application inspection and control, SSH Protocol Version 2.0, and Simple Network Management Protocol in one secure solution set. Additionally, by incorporating security features within the router, Cisco can provide unique smart protection functions other security appliances can't, such as NAC for antivirus defense; V3PN for quality-of-service enforcement when mixing voice, video, and Virtual Private Networks; Dynamic Multipoint VPN; Group Encrypted Transport (GET); VPN; and Easy Virtual Private Networks for supporting more scalable and manageable VPN environments.

Companies can utilize the Cisco 2800 Series to deploy an integrated IP telephony environment for as many as 96 IP phones, and can securely deploy data, voice, and IP telephony on a single platform for their small-to-medium sized branch offices.

The 2800 Series router supports an integrated access point for wireless LAN access, Wi-Fi Hotspot capability for shared public wireless access, and infrastructure services for cordless wireless LAN telephony and for larger locations.

3800 Integrated Services Routers
3800 Series integrated services routers are designed for small-to-medium-sized organizations and corporate satellite offices to provide companies the highest degree of network versatility, performance, and functionality. Cisco 3800 Series routers smoothly incorporate advanced network engineering, smart services, and protected corporate communications into a single resilient platform. The Cisco 3800 Series routers ease deployment and management, lower network cost and complexity, and provide investment protection. The Cisco 3800 Series integrated services routers feature embedded security intelligence, fast throughput and high memory capacity, and high-density interfaces that provide the speed, resilience, and dependability required for scaling business-critical protection, IP telephony, business video, network analysis, and web-based programs in the most competitive enterprise networks. Engineered for performance, the 3800 integrated services routers deliver multiple simultaneous services as fast as wired T3/E3 data rates.

The integrated services routing architecture of the 3800 router is engineered to incorporate and combine protection and voice handling with the latest wireline and wireless support for rapid deployment of new applications, including application layer functions, intelligent network services, and unified communications. The Cisco 3800 integrated services router supports the bandwidth demands of multiple Fast Ethernet interfaces per slot, time-division multiplexing interconnections, and integrated power distribution to expansion modules compatible with 802.3af Power over Ethernet, while still supporting the existing selection of modular interfaces. This enables continuing return on investment by allowing network expansion or accommodating innovations in technology as new applications are added. By combining the functions of multiple distinct devices into one compact device, the Cisco 3800 Series router dramatically lowers the cost and complexity of administering remote networks.

7200 VXR Series Routers
The7200 VXR router offers exceptional performance, modularity, and expandability in a compact form factor with a broad selection of deployment profiles. With processing throughput as high as 2 million packets / second, port and service adapters ranging from NxDS0 to 1 GigE, plus OC-3 as well as an unprecedented number of high-volume IP services, the 7200 VXR Integrated Services router is the ideal broadband aggregation edge solution for large corporations and service providers.

The 7200 VXR router features services aggregation by handling up to 16K PPP sessions per chassis, mixed-media integration via TDM-enabled VXR chassis and voice port adapters, IP-to-IP gateway support, and IPSec VPN expandable to 5K tunnels per chassis.

The 7200 VXR Series Integrated Services router combines into a compact platform functions previously handled by separate devices. Through this integration, the 7200 VXR Series Integrated Services router provides a single, cost-effective platform that accommodates sophisticated LAN and WAN interfaces plus broadband services aggregation including PPP, RFC 1483 termination, and Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol (L2TP) tunneling; digital T1/E1 TDM trunk termination for voice; high-density multichannel T3/E3 and T1/E1 with integrated channel service unit/data service unit (CSU/DSU); ATM, PoS, and Dynamic Packet Transport access; ATM Inverse Multiplexing over ATM for and data; and light-density Layer 2 Ethernet switching.

7600 Series Integrated Services Routers
The Cisco 7600 Series router benefits from the Cisco Catalyst 6500 infrastructure with an NEBS-3 compliant box, 256-Gbps crossbar, and 30-Mpps switching performance. High availability is implemented through redundancy as well as Cisco IOS Software capabilities. Also, the Cisco 7600 Series provides a rich array of high-touch IP network services at optical rates through a variety of Optical Services Modules enabled by Cisco proprietary Parallel Express Forwarding technology.

The Cisco 7609 Series provides the option to select a 256-Gbps Switch Fabric Module or a 32-Gbps data bus, delivering performance of 30 or 15 million packets per second each. If the Switch Fabric Module is used, the 7609 Series can in addition allow distributed switching with throughput up to 168 Mpps by running the Cisco Catalyst 6500 16-port Gbit Ethernet network card, which is controlled by the Distributed Forwarding Card and the Switch Fabric Module.

The Cisco 7603 Series router provides only the standard 32-Gbps bus version and provides 15 Mpps centralized switching performance. The 7603 does not offer Cisco's distributed switching capability.

Legacy Routers Supported by Progent's Network Professionals
Progent's Cisco certified engineers are familiar with older routers no longer offered by Cisco. Progent can show you how to manage these older routers and can also help you to prepare for and implement migrations to newer versions. Popular Cisco routers supported by Progent include: