[AusNOG] Cisco 887VA vs Cisco 867VAE

[Reuben Farrelly]

That document was last updated in 2009 and most things on it are now EoL 
and/or obsoleted. For example the 860 on that document is the old 
original model that IIRC is end of life, not the much newer 867VAE, so 
the figures don't apply. Ditto for the 880s - superseeded by the 880VA's.

My real world testing on an 867VAE indicates that 50Mbit/sec is probably 
closer to the limit before the CPU starts to eat dirt. That's with NAT 
but no ACLs and definitely no ZBFW.  A 100M NBN service would definitely 
be beyond one of these units.

Smartnet on them is around $40/year.

I have run into one problem with the 867VAE though. I have one deployed 
in NZ and the DSL trainup time varies between 2 mins and about an hour. 
I raised a TAC case on it, Cisco have told me in writing more than once 
that the firmware on that platform is very very ancient and cannot be 
upgraded (even though there is a download of Broadcom firmware for it on 
CCO which strongly suggests that it can be upgraded). They suggested 
that a fix for the issue was to upgrade to the 880VA, or to get the 
carrier (Chorus) to tweak DSLAM settings to drop the interleave delay. 
Neither were palatable options on what was a new install.

On another one that was installed on a long line in Campbelltown NSW it 
performed very well until the NBN was delivered a couple of months ago. 
  Now it drives a 25M NBN service easily and the upgrade from ADSL to 
NBN was done without a new router.

However despite these experiences, overall I would say that they are 
great for functionality and great value for the price.

Reuben

On 2/11/2015 9:35 PM, Skeeve Stevens wrote:
> I don't think either of these routers have the throughput to handle
> decent NBN connections.
>
> Check:
> http://www.cisco.com/web/partners/downloads/765/tools/quickreference/routerperformance.pdf
>
> 870 series - 12.8Mbps
> 860 series - 12.8Mbps
> 880 series - 25.6Mbos
> 890 series - 51.2Mbos
>
>
>
> ...Skeeve
>
>
> --
>
> Skeeve Stevens - The ISP Guy - Internet Provider SME
>
> Email: skeeve at theispguy.com <mailto:skeeve at theispguy.com> ; Cell:
> +61(0)414 753 383
>
> Skype: skeeve; Blog: TheISPGuy.com <http://theispguy.com/> ; Facebook:
> TheISPGuy <https://www.facebook.com/theispguy>
>
> Linkedin: /in/skeeve <http://www.linkedin.com/in/skeeve> ; Expert360:
> Profile <https://expert360.com/profile/d54a9>
>
>
> On Mon, Nov 2, 2015 at 5:35 PM, Radek Tkaczyk <radek at tkaczyk.id.au
> <mailto:radek at tkaczyk.id.au>> wrote:
>
>     Hi Guys,____
>
>     __ __
>
>     For those that use Cisco CPE routers, I’d like to get some opinions
>     on these two models of routers, Cisco 887VA and Cisco 867VA.____
>
>     __ __
>
>     We have always used the Cisco 887VA for ADSL2+ connections for our
>     business clients (those that won’t pay from proper Ethernet over
>     Copper, and a Cisco 881), but with the NBN FTTN now coming up, we
>     are re-examining our preferred choice of routers.____
>
>     __ __
>
>     Both support VDSL2, so no problem there for NBN FTTN compatibility
>     (hopefully), but the Cisco 867VA has the added benefit of having
>     BOTH VDSL2 WAN and gig WAN (Cisco 887VA only has a single VDSL WAN
>     port). The Cisco 867VAE also has an additional gig LAN port, as well
>     as the standard 4 x 100Mbps LAN ports.____
>
>     __ __
>
>     I have always thought that the 867VAE was a cheap alternative to the
>     “proper” Cisco 887VA,and we always used the Cisco 887VA so that we
>     had the best option available, but am interested to hear what other
>     people’s thoughts are here. Especially considering that the Cisco
>     867VAE is cheaper than the Cisco 887VA (not by much though)____
>
>     __ __
>
>     Regards,____
>
>     __ __
>
>     Radek Tkaczyk____
>
>     Ph: 0413 383 231____
>
>     __ __
>
>
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