Cisco 871 Router

I use the router in a bit different situation from most people. I use it in a house where I have a web and mail server as well as my home network. Nothing really business or for profit.

This was my first attempt at learning about cisco IOS. This is definitely a capable tool for low throughput but high feature needs. I was able to set up routing, NAT, FW, IPS, and VPN capabilities. The advanced security IOS image makes a big difference. This completely replaces my Open BSD firewall doing with as good as or better features without the hassle of running a complete computer.

However, it does have it's down sides. First, the Java gui configuration tool is fairly junky. Don't plan on relying on it to do your configuring. About half the wizards ran, but the other half not only didn't run but gave no reason why. However, anything you can do in the wizard you can do in IOS it's self (as the wizards are just running IOS commands).

Second, the DMZ set up on this router is disappointing. As far as I can tell "DMZ", just means allowing a second VPN with some limited filtering. Personally, I was hoping to hang a dumb switch off the port and write some fairly complex rules, for my servers in the DMZ, however the router doesn't seem to want to let the external interface share the IP space of the DMZ. Maybe I'm miss-understanding what the IOS build allows and doesn't allow, but it's quirky enough I may just buy a separate cisco switch to put infront of the router which would host the DMZ servers as well as the appropriate ACLs.

Overall, this is a great router if you have either a small home or business you want to connect to the internet with the scale version of an enterprise solution as well as needing the full range of capabilities in a single package. I'd recommend it to anyone.