The Cisco Integrated Services Router (ISR) technology concept, that was initially implemented on 1800, 2800, 3800 series, is now available on the small office and small business models in the 800 series routers. The ISR technology integrates several networking and security features on one device, such as wireless networking, security firewall, virtual private networks, quality of service etc. More specifically, some of the features included on one device include a built-in firewall, encryption, protection against hackers, 4-port switch, up to 10 virtual private network connections for allowing remote employees to access the LAN, prioritization for voice, wireless connectivity etc.

 The following table shows all the 800 series models with some of their importand features.

Cisco has announced the Grand Prize winner of its competition for the best overall home network using Cisco equipment. This competition is run among Cisco employees. The winner is Iwan Eberhart, Frauenfeld, Switzerland. His Home Network is shown in the figure below:

“I enjoy having the latest and greatest technologies at home, too,” he says. In fact, not a day goes by that Eberhart doesn’t use his home network for work, play, or both.
As you can see, Eberhart uses his home network for TV and Movies, Centralized Storage of his media collection, Sound and Music, IP Telephony, Home LAN gaming etc.

Eberhart’s prize-winning home network evolves continually as new technology becomes available. His next plan is to consolidate the three devices in his living room. One option is to use the KiSS Technology set-top box to stream local movies and MP3 files, which would enable Eberhart to relocate the media player to his bedroom. Or, if his service provider agrees, he might install the Microsoft IP/TV client on a new Xbox 360, which would let him move the set-top box to his bedroom.
He plans to use the prize money to buy more home network gadgets.

The Cisco 520 Ethernet to Ethernet router can be used as a PPPoE Client (Point to Point over Ethernet) to connect a small office to a DSL service for Internet access. Also, using Network Address Translation (NAT), you can connect multiple computers to the Internet using the same router. The same configuration applies also for the newest Cisco 850 and 870 series ISR routers.

PPPoE is a protocol which encapsulates the older dial-up PPP protocol into Ethernet frames for sending over ADSL networks. The physical interface needed for PPPoE is still Ethernet, but you need to configure some sort of dial-up configuration on the router, as we will see below. A simple network diagram of a small SOHO network using a Cisco 520 (applicable also for 850 and 870 series models) with PPPoE connection is shown below:

Configuration Example

Assume that the internal network range is 10.0.0.0 /24. Also, FastEthernet4 is the WAN facing interface. We will configure the PPPoE using a Virtual Private Dialup Network (VPDN) group and make this group work with pppoe protocol. A sample of the configuration is shown below:

vpdn enable
vpdn-group 1
request-dialin
protocol pppoe
!
interface vlan 1
ip address 10.0.0.1 255.255.255.0
ip nat inside
!
interface FastEthernet 4
pppoe-client dial-pool-number 1
ip nat outside
!
interface dialer 1
ip address negotiated
ip mtu 1492
dialer pool 1
dialer-group 1
encapsulation ppp
ppp authentication chap pap callin
ppp chap hostname username@myisp.com
ppp chap password MyISPpassword
ppp pap sent-user username@myisp.com password MyISPpassword
ip nat outside
no shut
!
dialer-list 1 protocol ip permit
access-list 1 permit 10.0.0.0 0.0.0.255
ip nat inside source list 1 interface dialer 1 overload
ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 dialer 1