Upgrade MX68 to MX75 - licensing?

[DanielOdievich1]

Hi!

Back in 2019 I bought MX68 with couple of access points and a switch for my house. I was still at Cisco so with an employee purchase discount I locked a 8 year license good until 2027.

I am on gigabit fiber. MX68 is limited to 500MBps so my connection is only 1/2 used. It's really not a problem but there is always an upgraditis itch. 

I am curious, if I were to buy a used MX75 which can do 1GBps, can I somehow swap my MX68 for it or do I have to buy a separate license just for it. 

Thank you,

Daniel

[KarstenI]

The MX68 should be a little faster than 500 MBit/s, but the MX75 is definitely faster. Although also not 1Gig/s with all services. And yes, you need a different license for the MX75.

[RaphaelL]

I'm hitting 800/850 on my MX68CW. Make sure to set the trafic shaping to 'unlimited' a.k.a maximum of the slider. That should help !

[DanielOdievich1]

I haven't been in the SD-WAN and Traffic Shaping screen in a while, at least a couple of years. To my surprise, my settings in there were set to "custom" and up/down limit of 450. I do not remember setting that value... maybe I I did years ago? Anyhow, I changed it to sliders view, slid the slider to the right and it said 600Mbps. Retesting speedtest, I see the up/down go from 450 to ~540. okay I'll take THAT! Fascinating what one can discover in settings if pointed to. Thanks @RaphaelL 

[RaphaelL]

The maximum used to be 450 Mbps around MX14.something.  

It is now in theory 600Mbps like you mentioned.  However without  anything special running ( AMP , IPS/IDS disabled ) and running the latest firmware ( MX 18.107.5  ) I'm closer to 800Mbps.

[DanielOdievich1]

Thanks for explaining where 450 came from, Raphael.

The reason I invested into this was to get the content scanning/blocking/protection and malicious traffic protection for children which has been very helpful in terms of questionable content avoidance. I think I'll accept that bump down in return for the ongoing protection, at least while the children are still with us. 

[Mloraditch · Accepted solution]

Just for the benefit of someone in the future looking at this thread, no matter how you shake it, this is a license change. This is when I suggest talking to your reseller and engaging with your Meraki rep. They have the ability to help ease the pricing pain of the upgrade. No guarantees, but always worth asking. 

As an individual home user not sure you have much leverage, but a regular business looking at this should definitely ask.