Routers are the heart of connectivity architecture, securely forwarding data packets from one network to another. Cisco Systems supplies the vast majority of the industry's routers and has created a broad product line that features routers designed to provide the protection, throughput, and dependability features required by companies of all sizes. Cisco routers have built-in support for redundancy, instant failover, and backup power for enhanced fault tolerance and system uptime. These capabilities allow companies to lay a solid structure for an IT network that allows you to expand as you accommodate new workers, open new sites, deploy new capabilities, give access to your system to customers and partners, and support a more mobile workforce.

Cisco Routers Designed for Small, Mid-size and Large Companies
Cisco's routers offer an advanced solution that reduces network outages and ensures access to your most vital applications. Cisco's focus on combining innovative services with high speed allows companies to create WANs that are smarter, more resilient, and more reliable. For organizations of all sizes who require fast, protected access to their key programs as well as a foundation for continuing expansion, Cisco routers provide a product line engineered for safe, wire-speed transmission of simultaneous voice traffic. Cisco's integrated services routers incorporate protection and voice support into an integrated routing solution that speeds application installation and lowers maintenance expenses and complexity.

Cisco SB 100 Routers
Cisco's Small Business 100 family of secure broadband routers provides an economical Cisco router for data-only applications in small business customers with up to five users. SB 100 versions include ADSL, ADSL, or an Ethernet WAN interface with a 4-port 10/100 Ethernet switch. Every SB 100 delivers secure connectivity with built-in stateful firewall and support for Multiprotocol Label Switching-based Virtual Private Networks. In addition, simple configuration tool, Cisco Router and Security Device Manager, allows you to configure the router and its built-in firewall, while off-site administration capabilities in IOS Software allow hassle-free integration and centralized support.

Cisco SB 100 Routers have been replaced by the Cisco 850 and 870 Series Integrated Services Routers. Progent's Cisco-certified support experts can assist your business to manage your existing SB 100 routers and help you migrate to more advanced products.

Cisco 800 Series Routers
The Cisco 870 and 850 Integrated Services Routers are entry-level routers that offer highly secure, concurrent services over fast interfaces in small off-site offices, telecommuter, and small company sites.

Cisco 850 Series routers are designed for small networks, ideal for up to 10 users or for telecommuter environments where only protected and affordable access is required. Cisco 850 Series routers deliver safe connectivity with Stateful Inspection Firewall and IPsec VPN support for small LANs, 4-connection 10/100 switch, protected WLAN 802.11b/g option with a fixed antenna, and easy configuration and integration and remote management capabilities via Web-based tools and Cisco IOS Software.

Cisco 870 Series routers are targeted for small networks, well-suited for as many as 20 users or for telecommuter sites where high-quality voice/video over IP and dependable access utilizing standby broadband connections are needed, in addition to protected connections. 870 Series routers offer high performance for WAN connectivity in small workgroups as well as enhanced security through capabilities that include stateful Inspection Firewall, IP Security Virtual Private Networks, Triple Data Encryption Standard or AES plus Dynamic Multipoint VPN and GETVPN, an intrusion prevention system, and virus defense using Network Admission Control (NAC) and enforcement of safe access policies.

Cisco 870 Series routers also offer industry-leading quality of service, 4-port 10/100 Ethernet managed switch with VLAN support, secure WiFi option with use of multiple antennas, easy configuration and integration through Web-based tools and off-site administration capabilities via Cisco IOS Software, and Power over Ethernet support to work with IP phones or wireless access points.

1800 Integrated Services Routers
The scalable Cisco 1800 family of routers incorporate data and security within one robust solution for high-speed, expandable delivery of strategic business applications. The Cisco 1800 Series design has been specifically engineered to satisfy the requirements of small-to-medium-sized organizations, branch offices, and ISP-managed services applications for delivery of concurrent services at high-speed throughput. The integrated services systems design of the Cisco 1800 Series offers maximum versatility and investment protection.

Designed for protected data connectivity, the Cisco 1841 router offers significant added value compared to previous generations of 1700 Series devices by bringing more than a fivefold performance increase plus built-in hardware-based encryption activated by an optional IOS Software protection image. Cisco's 1841 device dramatically improves interface card slot performance and density compared to the 1700 Series while maintaining support for more than 30 existing WAN interface cards and multiflex trunk cards (voice/WICs-for data only on the 1841 router). The 1841 router provides additional improvement of VPN throughput with an available Virtual Private Network acceleration module; IPS and firewall capabilities; support for a broad array of interface requirements, such as support for integrated switch ports; plus enough speed and expansion slot density for future network growth and advanced applications.

Cisco 2800 Integrated Services Routers
Targeted at small to midsize businesses (SMBs) and corporate satellite offices, Cisco's 2800 Series routers consists of four platforms: the 2801, the Cisco 2811, the Cisco 2821, and the Cisco 2851 router. The Cisco 2800 Series routers provides significant added value compared to older models of Cisco routers at comparable price points by offering up to a 5x performance increase, as much as a tenfold improvement in protection and voice performance, built-in service features, and radically increased plug-in slot performance and capacity while maintaining compatibility with the vast majority of the over 90 existing modules available today for Cisco's 1700, the 2600 Series, and Cisco's 3700 Series devices.

The Cisco 2800 Series can deliver a variety of advanced concurrent services at wire data rates up to numerous T1/E1/xDSL connections. 2800 Series offer embedded rapid encryption and on-the-motherboard voice DSP expansion slots; intrusion prevention system and firewall functions; optional integrated call processing and voice mail support; high-capacity interfaces for a wide array of wired and wireless access options; and sufficient power and slot capacity for further system expansion requirements and advanced applications.

Cisco's 2800 router offers an array of popular protection functions such as a Cisco IOS Software Firewall, an IPS, IP security Virtual Private Network, Secure Socket Layer (SSL) Virtual Private Network, advanced application inspection and control, Secure Shell Protocol Version 2.0, and Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMPv3) in a single secure solution set. Also, by integrating security features within the router itself, Cisco can provide special intelligent protection functions other security devices cannot, such as network admissions control for virus protection; Voice and Video Enabled VPN for quality-of-service enforcement when mixing voice, video, and VPN; Dynamic Multipoint VPN; Group Encrypted Transport (GET); VPN; and Easy VPN for enabling more expandable and manageable VPN environments.

Businesses can use the Cisco 2800 Series router to deploy an integrated IP telephony network for as many as 96 IP phones, and can securely deploy data, voice, and IP telephony on a single router for their small to midsize satellite offices.

The 2800 router incorporates a built-in wireless access point for wireless LAN connectivity, Wi-Fi Hotspot capability for public wireless access, and network services for portable WLAN telephony and for high-density sites.

3800 Series Integrated Services Routers
3800 Series routers are designed for small-to-medium-sized organizations and enterprise branch offices to provide businesses the highest degree of network versatility, speed, and functionality. Cisco 3800 Series routers transparently integrate the latest network engineering, smart services, and protected enterprise communications into a single resilient platform. The Cisco 3800 Series routers ease deployment and management, lower network cost and complexity, and provide investment protection. Cisco 3800 Series integrated services routers offer embedded security processing, fast throughput and high memory capacity, and high-capacity interfaces that deliver the speed, resilience, and reliability necessary for scaling mission-critical security, IP telephony, business video, system monitoring, and web-based applications in even the most competitive corporate environments. Engineered for performance, the The Cisco 3800 Series integrated services routers deliver multiple concurrent services as fast as wired T3/E3 rates.

The proprietary routing architecture of the Cisco 3800 router is built to embed and integrate protection and voice processing with the latest wireline and wireless support for fast deployment of new applications, including application layer operations, intelligent network services, and converged communications. The 3800 Series integrated services router meets the throughput demands of multiple Fast Ethernet ports per expansion slot, TDM connections, and fully integrated power sourcing to expansion modules supporting 802.3af Power over Ethernet, while still accommodating the traditional portfolio of interfaces. This permits ongoing return on investment by allowing network expansion or adapting to innovations in technology as new services are added. By integrating the functions of several separate devices into one small device, the 3800 router significantly reduces the expense and complexity of managing remote networks.

7200 VXR Series Integrated Services Routers
The7200 VXR Integrated Services router offers high levels of performance, modularity, and expandability in a small form factor with a broad selection of configuration profiles. With processing speeds as high as two mega-packets / second, port and service adapters spanning from NxDS0 to GbE, plus OC-3 along with an unprecedented number of high-volume IP services, the Cisco 7200 VXR router is the ideal services aggregation wide- and metropolitan-area network edge solution for enterprises and ISPs.

The 7200 VXR Series router features services aggregation by handling up to 16,000 Point-to-Point Protocol sessions per chassis, mixed-media support with time-division multiplexer (TDM)-enabled VXR frame and voice port adapters, IP-to-IP gateway support, and IP Security virtual private networking scalable to 5,000 tunnels per device.

The 7200 VXR Series Integrated Services router integrates into a single chassis functions formerly handled by multiple appliances. Thanks to this integration, the 7200 VXR Series router offers a standalone, affordable solution that accommodates sophisticated LAN and WAN interfaces plus broadband services aggregation which includes Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP), RFC 1483 termination, and Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol; digital T1/E1 time-division multiplexer (TDM) trunk termination for and data; high-density multichannel T3/E3 and T1/E1 with integrated channel service unit/data service unit (CSU/DSU); ATM, Packet over SONET, and Dynamic Packet Transport (DPT) access; ATM IMA (Inverse Multiplexing over ATM) for mixed media; and low-volume Layer 2 Ethernet switching.

7600 Series Integrated Services Routers
The Cisco 7600 Series Integrated Services router takes advantage of the Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series architecture by using an NEBS-3 compliant box, 256-Gbps crossbar switch fabric, and 30-Mpps switching performance. Fault tolerance is implemented through logic and hardware redundancy as well as Cisco IOS Software capabilities. In addition, the 7600 Series router provides a broad array of high-touch network services at optical speed through a variety of OSMs enabled by Cisco patented Parallel Express Forwarding technology.

The Cisco 7609 Series has the option to select a 256-Gbps SFM or the standard 32-Gbps data bus, providing centralized switching performance of 30 million packets per second or 15 Mpps each. When the Switch Fabric Module is deployed, the Cisco 7609 Series can in addition allow distributed switching with rates up to 168 Mpps by using the Cisco Catalyst 6500 16-port Gigabit Ethernet module, which is powered by the DFC Card and the SFM.

The Cisco 7603 router has exclusively the 32-Gbps data bus option and provides 15 Mpps performance. The Cisco 7603 Series does not support Cisco's distributed switching capability.

Older Routers Maintained by Progent's Experts
Progent's CCIE support experts are familiar with legacy Cisco routers that are no longer available from Cisco. Progent can show you how to maintain these older routers and can also help you to rationalize and carry out upgrades to newer models. Older Cisco routers supported by Progent include: