R2503 vs R2505

What router is better R2503 or 2505? I have a chance to buy one but I don't know which one is the better. Can someone give me an advice?

Reply to
vitibor
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I wouldn't buy either one, they have both been end-of-life for about 7 or 8 years. Since they are so old, they do not support any of the new features, nor some ones that have been around for quite a while. They don't do NAT, IPSec, QoS, MPLS, trunking, or voice. Unless someone is giving it to you, you shouldn't waste your time.

Scott

Reply to
Thrill5

Not *quite* true.

The 2503 (Got one here) was supported up to the 12.3 train, and has most of the functionality available in the IP Plus FW 56DES featureset - so supports IPSec, NAT and QoS at the very least. IPSec performance sucks though - the 33MHz 680EC30 in the 2500 melts at about 64kb/s.

As far as I'm aware, no Cisco 10Mb interface on a router supports trunking, so - correct there.

And the answer to the OP question is "Depends on what you want to do"

The 2503 has a single 10Mb Ethernet interface presented as AUI, 2 Synchronous Serial ports which are good for 2Mb each and an ISDN port - it's pretty good for getting an idea of dialup, leased line and a fair bit of the Ethernet configuration side of things.

The 2505 has an 8 port 10Mb hub presented onto a single 10Mb ethernet interface and 2 sync serial ports - more useful to stick in the middle of a test network, but less useful overall.

If I were being offered one *cheap* I'd pump for the 2503.

As an interesting side note, the original 3000 series routers are 100% compatible with 2500 series IOS images, so if you blow one of them all the way out on RAM and Flash you can get some real deals to play with 12.3 images (include standard disclaimer about software licensing here)

The previous posters advice does still stand to some extent - if you get a chance spend your money on something a bit more recent - 2620 or 3640 - they support more of what's gradually becoming core functionality.

P.

Reply to
Paul S. Brown

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