Cisco’s new 1861 Remote office router packs a punch!

Have you heard about Cisco’s latest branch router? They recently released it and I admit that I am very impressed.

First, take a look at what it looks like:

Different, right?

I didn’t shrink the picture – it really isn’t full rack-width. It is pretty small actually. As you can see, it has switch ports, a HWIC slot, switch ports, and a CF card slot. But wait, there is more…

It can also come with:

• 256MB RAM & 512MB for optional voicemail
• Call Manager Express for VoIP (up to 8 user)
• Optional Unity Express for voicemail & auto attendant
• Call Manager survivability (SRST) if the circuit to a reall call manager goes down
• FXO/FXS VoIP ports to connect to the PSTN or analog phones
• Power over Ethernet (PoE) Ethernet ports for VoIP phones, perhaps
• optional IPSEC encryption, IPS, firewall, & more

And, no, I am not trying to sell the thing to you. I honestly like Cisco products and think that this all-in-one branch office router is pretty darn amazing! I sure would like to get my hands on one to try out! ((anyone from Cisco reading this? want to send me a loaner? ))

Oh yeah – and it does routing too!

In my humble opinion, the new Cisco 1861 ISR (as they call them) does really “pack a punch” – a small box with a lot of features.

For more information on the Cisco 1861, see Cisco’s complete list of features.

All the best to you,
David Davis, CCIE, VCP, CISSP

Personal Website: HappyRouter.com – home of Cisco how-to articles & videos
David Recommends:
HappyRouter Cisco CCNA & CCNP Video Training Series
Cirro – Quote Telecom Internet, Voice, and Data T1 circuits from an unbiased source