100mbps capable ethernet router?

[paddyhasneeds]

I need a router that will sit on our LAN, can be set as our machines default gateway, and do the following:

Route external packets to the LAN interface of our firewall.
Route packets to an external office to the LAN interface of the router that connects to that location.

Our internet connection is going to be 100mbps, so naturally the router should be able to handle this level of throughput.

Help! It's a bloody minefield!

TIA

[paddyhasneeds]

I'd rather not a Linux box purely because we don't want a server sized box just for this, and DIY is the non-prefered route (corporate/support contracts if it breaks etc.)

Cisco - yup of course, but they make shedloads of models and they don't seem to shout too loudly what the throughput is.

I've come across a unit from Allied Telesis, the "AT-AR415S" which seems to do what we need and isn't overly expensive.

What I'm finding is that most of these routers nowdays offer VPN/Firewalling and LAN/WAN interfaces and seem to want to do so many tasks when all I want is something with a single port that will route packets to a couple of devices on the same LAN segment.

To give an idea, the current device is an old Cisco 25xx with a 10mbps connecting into our main switch via AUI to Ethernet.

[paddyhasneeds]

qube_TA said:

100M ethernet has been the norm for years (gigabit mostly now) any old router will do what you want. Just find a Cisco one of Ebay and you will be fine.

That's the problem though, with respect it appears it won't.

When I say our Internet connection is 100mbps I don't mean sync rate, I mean it's a 100mbps circuit into an ISPs suite in Telehouse, and will pull 97-98mbps happily - the cheaper Ciscos (i.e. the 8xx) don't appear to be able to cope with this from what I've read?

[paddyhasneeds]

buggalugs said:

Just another thought, is it possible to add a routing table entry for the external office router to the routing table on the internet firewall box? Then ditch this box completely?

I had thought about that.

The biggest issue (as I see it) is that it's Microsoft ISA Server, and it seems to have its own take on certain types of rules.

Basically I wouldn't trust it to route "All" traffic to our remote site even if there was a rule telling it to do so.

Also, and it's a small point but it would mean fiddling with default gateway IP addresses on a lot of devices with static IP's and as they say "time is money" so it's cheaper just to stick with a box.

[paddyhasneeds]

qube_TA said:

What's the presentation on your connection? Ethernet, Gig-ethernet or fibre?

100mbps Ethernet on the internal interface of the ISP provided router, though by the time it hits our LAN it'll be through the 1gbps internal NIC on our ISA.

qube_TA said:

ETA to get 100Meg throughput from an office is a hell of a lot of data, sure you're really going to use all that? We host large newspapers here and they don't pull half that.

I don't know what the average utilization will be, but I'd expect our usage to be bursty as it'll be 250 odd people's worth of general browsing mixed with large file/data transfers as and when.

Tbh we were offered a deal that was too good to refuse.