Recommendation for a 1000~ users Router?

[sks447]

Hi All!

Do you guys have any recommendations for a router that can sustain around 1000 users?

a budget from $500-1500 would be great!

Thank you!

[Roger H. Veteran]

Prolly gonna need some... actually don't think any single AP can handle that, you'll prolly need to create a mesh network or have a bunch of them to handle the traffic and just the associations. Each AP no matter how fast still SHARES the bandwidth it has amongst all connected users so even if you had a 1Gbps AC router, with 1000 users speeds would be down to 1Mbps (sometimes, obviously depends on usage).

So you'll need probably 20-30 APs spread out all over... I don't think brand matters much but just network planning. Gotta setup network power since they'll all be within close proximity (relatively) to each other so you don't want 1 overpower the others. Since in 2.4Ghz you only have 3 channels to work with you gotta space those 3 apart then mix and match the rest that are around those.

I'd say some of those Cisco APs only because I don't know many other options, i'm sure others will come along and tell you. For research you can check out how they deploy them in Football Stadiums and such - I think Dallas Cowboys Stadium had like 10,000 APs for the 70,000 Users.

[Praetor]

i don't think he's talking about AP's...

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

Cisco, Hewlett-Packard and Juniper are all amongst the many networking gear vendors that make devices which fit your needs.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

[The Evil Overlord]

If I may be so bold, have you considered talking to a college campus IT administrator?

Because they need to connect 100, or in the larger campus grounds, 1000's of computers, usually they have a network to their servers and so on.

I'm no IT genius, believe me, but it might help talking to such a person (as an IT admin) to gather information face to face. :)

[sc302 Veteran]

Ok. Lets start with what is your connection to the Internet then we can discuss what your needs are. Perhaps remote offices would be a good idea to get an idea about as well. Give us something to go with other than something so vague.

[tonyjr]

Mikrotik Cloud Core Router w/36 cores?

Website: http://cloudcorerouter.com/Cloud_Core_Router_CCR1036_12G_4S.php

For that kind of budget anyway...

[+BudMan MVC]

a 1000 users with a budget of $1500?? Where did you get this number from?

As sc302 asked already to do what? Route their text messages to the internet, where is this router connected? Internet, another location - what bandwidth do you have to support these 1000's users to do what exactly via the router?

You better have 1 fat pipe if your expecting to support 1k users for internet access.

There is no possible way to give you anything useful with the info given - sorry. If you were looking at say a 3945 from cisco which is a branch office type router that can handle a connection in the 400Mbps range your in the +10K, not $1500 ;)

That being said - depending on what your doing and what your bandwidth requirements are you can put together some pretty beefy home grown router solutions, pfsense, m0n0wall, etc. That can route some serious traffic on a shoestring budget.

[grunger106]

As others have said, what kind of traffic are you routing? and where are you routing it to?

Routers that will give you high levels of throughput at speeds upwards of 350Mbps are going to cost

[+BudMan MVC]

What I find confusing - is why someone would be involved in trying to find anything involved to do with 1k plus users that would need to ask here on neowin in the first place. Someone doing design work for a 1k user network should have the skill set already to know how to size the equipment required to support such a network.

Now if you have gotten thrown into the deep end without your floaties --- there are quite a few people here that can provide some great information and be happy to help.. But going to need loads more information.

Did you maybe add a couple of zeros in a typo and you meant 10 users? Or small company with 100 users that has outgrown their off the shelf soho router? And the boss says hey you know how to get my wireless working when it stops, so what do you think? ;) Sort of thing?

There is a slight difference between going to the local computer store or looking on newegg for a new "router" that does 802.11n or ac etc.. And has gig ports vs 100mbit ports and designing the network required to support 1k users ;) What is the infrastructure currently supporting these 1000 users?

One of my old locations had in its hay day 900 plus nodes -- with core switch in the 100's of K dollars cisco 6509 with countless closet switches and multiple routers for connections to other locations and the internet.. Just 1 of the closet switches were over your $1500 budget...

So I am really curious on the details of what your looking to accomplish with such a budget.. Did you maybe forget a few zero's on the budget side of it ;)

[tonyjr]

It can be done on that budget though. Maybe look away from the big vendors, stop saying it can't be done and moaning and answer the original question.

[grunger106]

It can be done on that budget though. Maybe look away from the big vendors, stop saying it can't be done and moaning and answer the original question.

The OP still needs to quantify exactly what they are trying to achieve - layout of the site, multi-site, (assuming) multi-VLAN, what is being routed, how many and what kind of links etc., without that it's shooting in the dark....

A 1000 user site is a very different proposition to a 100 user site - it isn't just a increase in seats, you (should) have the network organised differently.

Even the lower end provider gear (Zyxel, their USGs are great value) is still ?2000 and up for equipment with high throughput and that stuff maxes out ~400Mbps

Yes the big vendors are expensive, they are also tried, and tested, they have support contracts with replacement kit on the floor within an hour (on some smartnet plans) and if you have 1000 users sitting around unable to work you don't need to be messing about with some cobbled together router, you need it to be standard.

It probably is possible in theory to actually knock something up using a PC, Linux and some fast NICs - that would probably do the throughput, however personally I wouldn't go that route - I like tried, tested, solid and supportable.

I'll have to check out the Mikrotik stuff though - never heard of it....

[Praetor]

It can be done on that budget though. Maybe look away from the big vendors, stop saying it can't be done and moaning and answer the original question.

yes if you expect them to access the internet in 90's speed.