Replacing some old cisco routers, looking for some feedback

Networking & Firewalls
1

Hey all,

Looking at replacing some ageing Cisco 819F routers (i know i know they’re well out of support) and wanted to run a few configs by the experts.

Summary: This is part of a lab setup attached to 2 hosts, each with a set of Linux VMs, each VM has a dedicated WAN IP going straight out via 1 of 2 broadband lines with the same ISP.

Option 1: Unifi Cloud Gateway Ultra, 2 WANs in, 2 LANs out to each host. It’s been a while since I’ve used the unifi gateways (last one I used was a USG-3p). Is anyone able to confirm if I can:

  • Run 2 PPPoE connections with different credentials.
  • Passthrough/Bridge the connections such that the VMs on the LAN side can have 1:1 NAT/dedicated public IPs.

Option 2: Pfsense with bridge interfaces or 1:1 NAT mapping. This I’ve done before and I know it works, but the cheapest netgate appliance is $350, considerably more than the cloud gateway ultra. 3rd party hardware would be considered if this remains the best option.

Option 3: Replace the current ciscos with newer ciscos. My least preferable option as I don’t want to have to deal with more cisco than necessary, but again this is a solution that works and is currently deployed so it stands the highest chances of continuing to do so.

Option 4: Is there an option I’ve missed? How would you approach this?

All thoughts opinions and feedback welcomed <3

2

Have you considered a PFSense VM instead of additional hardware? May just need a VLAN capable switch, connect the ISPs to the switch in different VLANs and the use those VLANs as WANs in PFSense. LAN out from PFSense would just be another VLAN.

1 Like
3

The issue with that currently is that the VMs are spread across 2 hosts, and neither have any headroom for an extra vm, even a small pf.

However there are plans to replace the hosts as well, and I’d be consolidating down to a single machine so I’m thinking I’ll use a VM once that’s done.

For now, as we have an old mini pc that used to run pfsense, I’m thinking I’ll use that.

4

I think running pfSense on some older or used hardware is the best value. It gives you the control you are looking for and the lowest cost option. The other option I would consider is new Cisco equipment since you know that already works.