830 - worth to start with ?

Yes.

All cisco routers run the same software and have the same user interface. Of course you can't do too much with one router.

Read about Feature Sets to make sure you get what you want. you could think of them like Vista-Home vs Vista-most-expensive. all of them have a base set of features and the more expensive ones do more. For CCNA the base set is quite likely to be enough.Some 830 series routers can have a second "internal" routed ethernet port but this may require a fancy Feature Set.

It is definately worth seeing the hardware but you can also use Dynamips, a free router emulator for PCs. One point about dynamips is that it needs a real Cisco Software image.

bod43 wrote in news:1420c6a4-e1d7-4b31-bd16- snipped-for-privacy@x22g2000yqx.googlegroups.com:

Thanks for the reply. Continuing in the same thread...

...so I went ahead and bought myself a used 831, the idea is to learn while using it for my broadband connection.

However, it seems that this one is not healthy. It is stuck in a constant reboot loop with a INSUFFICIENT MEMORY TO BOOT DEVICE message. (log below).

As far as I gather there is a multitide of IOS versions in existence, and I am wondering if the version that my router is trying to start (and failing) is supported?

What solution to this error message is possible, apart from screaming angrily at the seller?

Log:

=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~= PuTTY log 2010.02.18 19:11:05 =~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=

Restricted Rights Legend

Use, duplication, or disclosure by the Government is subject to restrictions as set forth in subparagraph (c) of the Commercial Computer Software - Restricted Rights clause at FAR sec. 52.227-19 and subparagraph (c) (1) (ii) of the Rights in Technical Data and Computer Software clause at DFARS sec. 252.227-7013.

cisco Systems, Inc. 170 West Tasman Drive San Jose, California 95134-1706

Cisco IOS Software, C831 Software (C831-K9O3SY6-M), Version 12.3(8)T1, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc3) Technical Support:

(c) 1986-2004 by Cisco Systems, Inc. Compiled Wed 07-Jul-04 07:41 by eaarmas Image text-base: 0x800131E8, data-base: 0x80E61C8C

This product contains cryptographic features and is subject to United States and local country laws governing import, export, transfer and use. Delivery of Cisco cryptographic products does not imply third-party authority to import, export, distribute or use encryption. Importers, exporters, distributors and users are responsible for compliance with U.S. and local country laws. By using this product you agree to comply with applicable laws and regulations. If you are unable to comply with U.S. and local laws, return this product immediately.

A summary of U.S. laws governing Cisco cryptographic products may be found at:

If you require further assistance please contact us by sending email to snipped-for-privacy@cisco.com.

Cisco C831 (MPC857DSL) processor (revision 0x300) with 44237K/4915K bytes of memory. Processor board ID AMB07170C4V (695387776), with hardware revision 0000 CPU rev number 7

2 Ethernet interfaces 4 FastEthernet interfaces 128K bytes of NVRAM. 24576K bytes of processor board System flash (Read/Write) 2048K bytes of processor board Web flash (Read/Write)

% PDL Error : Arguments to logical operators must be either a constant interger or a field name or a concat

% PDL Error : Both arguments to logical operator are constants File : base.pdl Line : 23 : (if (= field val) (continue) (fail))) ^^^^^^^ Unknown structure type : 2564 Unknown structure type : 1024

validblock_diagnose, code = 3

current memory block, bp = 0x82081FDC, memorypool type is Processor data check, ptr = 0x82082004 bp->next(0x00000000) not in any mempool

previous memory block, bp = 0x82081F98, memorypool type is Processor data check, ptr = 0x82081FC0 ========= Dump bp = 0x82081FDC ======================

82081EDC: 0 FD0110DF AB1234CD FFFFFFFE 0 80EE5CB8 8036C544 82081F98 82081EFC: 82081E7C 80000046 1 0 81654AB0 81654EB0 81654EB8 0 82081F1C: 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 82081F3C: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 82081F5C: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 82081FC0 82081F7C: 1 0 1 0 1 82081D98 FD0110DF AB1234CD 82081F9C: FFFFFFFE 0 80EE5CB8 8036C89C 82081DDC 82081EF8 8000000E 1 82081FBC: 0 0 4 1 6A756E6B 0 0 FD0110DF 82081FDC: AB1234CD 0 0 80F4D488 8036C89C 0 82081FAC 5589FE 82081FFC: 0 0 DEADBEEF 0 0 0 8165AFF0 8165AFEC 8208201C: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 8208203C: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 8208205C: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 8208207C: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 8208209C: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 820820BC: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ========= Dump bp->next = 0x00000000 ======================

========== Dump bp->previous = 0x82081FAC =====================

82081EAC: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 82081ECC: 0 0 0 0 0 FD0110DF AB1234CD FFFFFFFE 82081EEC: 0 80EE5CB8 8036C544 82081F98 82081E7C 80000046 1 0 82081F0C: 81654AB0 81654EB0 81654EB8 0 1 0 0 0 82081F2C: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 82081F4C: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 82081F6C: 0 0 0 82081FC0 1 0 1 0 82081F8C: 1 82081D98 FD0110DF AB1234CD FFFFFFFE 0 80EE5CB8 8036C89C 82081FAC: 82081DDC 82081EF8 8000000E 1 0 0 4 1 82081FCC: 6A756E6B 0 0 FD0110DF AB1234CD 0 0 80F4D488 82081FEC: 8036C89C 0 82081FAC 5589FE 0 0 DEADBEEF 0 8208200C: 0 0 8165AFF0 8165AFEC 0 0 0 0 8208202C: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 8208204C: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 8208206C: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 8208208C: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ============================================

%Software-forced reload

Unexpected exception to CPUvector 700, PC = 0x802E5C20, LR = 0x802E5BD0

-Traceback= 802E5C20 802E5BD0 802FDA80 802F5488 80352FD0 80353140

80330484 80330308 80330334 80330334 80330334 80330334 80330334 80330334 80330334 80330334

CPU Register Context: MSR = 0x00029032 CR = 0x33053095 CTR = 0x80A9E600 XER = 0x8000007F R0 = 0x802E5BD0 R1 = 0x81862190 R2 = 0x81640000 R3 = 0x816C5A44 R4 = 0xFFFFFFFE R5 = 0x00000000 R6 = 0x81862168 R7 = 0x814E0000 R8 = 0xFF000000 R9 = 0x00000000 R10 = 0x00009032 R11 = 0x816C5964 R12 = 0xA0000000 R13 = 0xFFF32D6C R14 = 0x000007AF R15 = 0x816E10D0 R16 = 0x00000001 R17 = 0x00000001 R18 = 0x80352FCC R19 = 0x00000000 R20 = 0x00000000 R21 = 0x00000000 R22 = 0x00000000 R23 = 0x00000000 R24 = 0x82081FDC R25 = 0x81862208 R26 = 0x0000140C R27 = 0x8165AEE8 R28 = 0x8165C9AC R29 = 0x80F4D934 R30 = 0x00000000 R31 = 0x00000000

SYSTEM INIT: INSUFFICIENT MEMORY TO BOOT THE IMAGE!

File flash:crashinfo_20020301-000022 Device Error :No memoryFile webflash:crashinfo_20020301-000022 Device Error :No memory

=== Flushing messages (00:00:29 UTC Fri Mar 1 2002) ===

Buffered messages: Queued messages:

00:00:29: %SYS-3-LOGGER_FLUSHING: System pausing to ensure console debugging output.

*Mar 1 00:00:06.623: %LINK-3-UPDOWN: Interface FastEthernet1, changed state to up

*Mar 1 00:00:06.791: %LINK-3-UPDOWN: Interface FastEthernet2, changed state to up *Mar 1 00:00:06.791: %LINK-3-UPDOWN: Interface FastEthernet3, changed state to up *Mar 1 00:00:06.795: %LINK-3-UPDOWN: Interface FastEthernet4, changed state to up *Mar 1 00:00:06.795: %LINK-3-UPDOWN: Interface Ethernet1, changed state to up *Mar 1 00:00:07.715: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface FastEthernet1, changed state to up *Mar 1 00:00:08.055: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface FastEthernet2, changed state to up *Mar 1 00:00:08.055: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface FastEthernet3, changed state to up *Mar 1 00:00:08.055: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface FastEthernet4, changed state to up *Mar 1 00:00:08.055: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface Ethernet1, changed state to up *Mar 1 00:00:15.647: %SYS-6-LOGGERSTART: Logger process started *Mar 1 00:00:15.715: %LINK-3-UPDOWN: Interface Ethernet0, changed state to up 00:00:16: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface Ethernet0, changed state to up 00:00:16: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface Ethernet1, changed state to down 00:00:21: %SYS-3-BADBLOCK: Bad block pointer 82081FDC

-Traceback= 801DDBD8 80301C94 802FDA80 802F5488 80352FD0 80353140

80330484 80330308 80330334 80330334 80330334 80330334 80330334 80330334 80330334 80330334 00:00:21: %SYS-6-MTRACE: mallocfree: addr, pc 82081FC0,8036C89C 82081FC0,4000000E 82081F0C,8036C544 82081F0C,40000046 82081E90,80331E80 82081E90,4000002A 82081E4C,8036C89C 82081E4C,4000000E 00:00:21: %SYS-6-MTRACE: mallocfree: addr, pc 82081D98,8036C544 82081D98,40000046 82081D1C,80331E80 82081D1C,4000002A 8207F4DC,80352FCC 8207F4DC,4000140C 8207CC9C,80352FCC 8207CC9C,4000140C 00:00:21: %SYS-6-BLKINFO: Corrupted previous pointer blk 82081FDC, words 5605886, alloc 8036C89C, Free, dealloc 0, rfcnt 0

-Traceback= 801DDBD8 802F38F8 80301CA4 802FDA80 802F5488 80352FD0

80353140 80330484 80330308 80330334 80330334 80330334 80330334 80330334 80330334 80330334 00:00:21: %SYS-6-MEMDUMP: 0x82081FDC: 0xAB1234CD 0x0 0x0 0x80F4D488 00:00:21: %SYS-6-MEMDUMP: 0x82081FEC: 0x8036C89C 0x0 0x82081FAC 0x5589FE 00:00:21: %SYS-6-MEMDUMP: 0x82081FFC: 0x0 0x0 0x0 0x0 00:00:22: %SYS-2-MALLOCFAIL: Memory allocation of 16 bytes failed from 0x803EC318, alignment 0 Pool: Processor Free: 11211772 Cause: Mempool corrupt Alternate Pool: None Free: 0 Cause: No Alternate pool

-Process= "Init", ipl= 6, pid= 3?ôH??ôJt?ôIìJ 8801DDBD8 802F3730

802F5B7C 803EC31C 803EC12C 803EE660 8031340C 803106C8 802629EC 80262D48 80E602C8 802E716C 802E746C 802E8B90 802E5BD0 80301CC4 Program (breakpoint) Exception (0x700)!

CPU Register Context: PC = 0x802E5C20 MSR = 0x00029032 CR = 0x33053095 LR = 0x802E5BD0 CTR = 0x80A9E600 XER = 0x8000007F DAR = 0x00000814 DSISR = 0x000003E9 DEC = 0x0000E143 TBU = 0x00000000 TBL = 0x040037C3 IMMR = 0xFF000700 R0 = 0x802E5BD0 R1 = 0x81862190 R2 = 0x81640000 R3 = 0x816C5A44 R4 = 0xFFFFFFFE R5 = 0x00000000 R6 = 0x81862168 R7 = 0x814E0000 R8 = 0xFF000000 R9 = 0x00000000 R10 = 0x00009032 R11 = 0x816C5964 R12 = 0xA0000000 R13 = 0xFFF32D6C R14 = 0x000007AF R15 = 0x816E10D0 R16 = 0x00000001 R17 = 0x00000001 R18 = 0x80352FCC R19 = 0x00000000 R20 = 0x00000000 R21 = 0x00000000 R22 = 0x00000000 R23 = 0x00000000 R24 = 0x82081FDC R25 = 0x81862208 R26 = 0x0000140C R27 = 0x8165AEE8 R28 = 0x8165C9AC R29 = 0x80F4D934 R30 = 0x00000000 R31 = 0x00000000 Stack trace: PC = 802E5C20, SP = 81862190 Frame 00: SP = 81862190 RA = 80301CC4 Frame 01: SP = 818621A0 RA = 802FDA80 Frame 02: SP = 818621B8 RA = 802F5488 Frame 03: SP = 81862200 RA = 80352FD0 Frame 04: SP = 81862238 RA = 80353140 Frame 05: SP = 81862250 RA = 80330484 Frame 06: SP = 81862260 RA = 80330308 Frame 07: SP = 81862278 RA = 80330334 Frame 08: SP = 81862290 RA = 80330334 Frame 09: SP = 818622A8 RA = 80330334 Frame 10: SP = 818622C0 RA = 80330334 Frame 11: SP = 818622D8 RA = 80330334 Frame 12: SP = 818622F0 RA = 80330334 Frame 13: SP = 81862308 RA = 80330334 Frame 14: SP = 81862320 RA = 80330334 Frame 15: SP = 81862338 RA = 80330354 Frame 16: SP = 81862350 RA = 80330354 Frame 17: SP = 81862368 RA = 80330D74 Frame 18: SP = 81862380 RA = 8032DF20 Frame 19: SP = 818623F0 RA = 8032DFC8 Frame 20: SP = 81862400 RA = 8032E060 Frame 21: SP = 81862410 RA = 80368140 Frame 22: SP = 81862440 RA = 80378FC8 Frame 23: SP = 81862460 RA = 8035E39C Frame 24: SP = 81862478 RA = 8035EE5C Frame 25: SP = 81862598 RA = 8035FE04 Frame 26: SP = 818625C0 RA = 80A2064C Frame 27: SP = 818625F0 RA = 8021A3E4 Frame 28: SP = 81862620 RA = 80233960 Frame 29: SP = 81862680 RA = 80233B08 Frame 30: SP = 818626B8 RA = 80233C60 Frame 31: SP = 818626C0 RA = 80233D04 Frame 32: SP = 818626E8 RA = 8031DDB4 Frame 33: SP = 818626F0 RA = 80318CB4 Frame 34: SP = 81862708 RA = 80312654 Frame 35: SP = 81862730 RA = 8031AF20 Frame 36: SP = 81862740 RA = 8031B158 Frame 37: SP = 818627E8 RA = 801E9FC0 Frame 38: SP = 818627F0 RA = 801D6370 Frame 39: SP = 81862800 RA = 802E7830 Frame 40: SP = 818628F8 RA = 802EC7A4 Frame 41: SP = 81862900 RA = 0

*** System received a Software forced crash ***

signal= 0x17, code= 0x700, context= 0x816dfc28

PC = 0x802e5c20, Vector = 0x700, SP = 0x81862190

System Bootstrap, Version 12.2(8r)YN, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1) TAC Support:

(c) 2002 by cisco Systems, Inc. C800/SOHO series (Board ID: 29-129) platform with 49152 Kbytes of main memory

Indeed. Its possible that somebody removed/swapped out the RAM that was in the box for a lesser amount, or somebody forced something upon it that doesn't work.

Easiest solution? Complain to the seller that they didn't provide a working router to you. The image you have doesn't boot, its DOA.

Its supported for some exent, but perhaps your hardware specs aren't quite up to what that specific image needs.

That will be far easiest for you.

Officially, you can't get new/old IOS images without SmartNet on the box (which may not be able to get SmartNet maintenance on it any longer, don't know about them), but that being said, its fairly easy to search for the filenames on the Net..

Okay, so you have an 831, it is booting 12.3(8)T1. The 12.3T series tends to require you to be maxed out on RAM..

You have

48M of DRAM in the box. (Add the two numbers together, one is "system" RAM and the other is "I/O" RAM, but you count both.

And 24M of Flash.

And web flash doesn't matter at all any longer.

It seems you have a bad PDL file loaded (used for firewall and nbar signature detection), but thats probably the least of your worries.

Indeed, not a good thing.

And there's no more room left to store crash dump info files either..

Okay, down to business to find what you need out. Cisco FN says

for the exact image you are running, c831-k9os3y6-mz.123-8.T1.bin, you need to have 48M of DRAM and 12M of Flash. Which you do.

Thus, either the IOS flash image itself is bad, or the DRAM in the box is bad, and you are crashing when it tries to access the higher levels of memory, or you have a bad motherboard alltogether.

Personally, I'd first go back to the reseller and tell them they sold you bad hardware. Most likely the item that is bad is the DRAM chip. IIRC, that particular model has RAM soldered both onto the motherboard, and in a SIMM slot. So you could swap out some of the RAM, but not all of them.

The next most likely bad thing could be the Flash IOS image could be corrupt. You could try to find that file name again, and flash the box up with it. But, I'd bet it was bad DRAM first.

Lastly, if the bad RAM is on the motherboard, or the motherboard is toast, its not worth getting this box fixed up (ie. I'm not sure you can get SmartNet maintenance on it any longer).

I'd go back to the seller and complain they sold you bad hardware. The image you have should boot in the RAM that is reported, but its failing out, and most likely you will never get the router to boot with any special magic commands.

Doug McIntyre wrote in news:4b7da367$0$50147$ snipped-for-privacy@newsreader.iphouse.net:

Hey Doug,

thanks for claryfing what was happening with the router.

I have obtained a different release of the IOS (friend with a CCO account), and i managed to get the router working and operational.

I think the seller has sold it due to him trying to get a wrong version on it.

Seems to be working happily now, and SDM also recognizes it properly.

Mucho thanks for your help.

Jan wrote in news:Xns9D2589CEBD22cvega666gmailcom@69.16.176.253:

one more quick one :

CISCO C831 (MPC857DSL) processor (revision 0x300) with 44237K/4915K bytes of memory. Processor board ID AMB07170C4V (695387776), with hardware revision 0000 CPU rev number 7 Bridging software.

2 Ethernet/IEEE 802.3 interface(s) 128K bytes of non-volatile configuration memory. 24576K bytes of processor board System flash (Read/Write) 2048K bytes of processor board Web flash (Read/Write)

does that seem right?

I was under the impression the 831 was a 10/100 router?

and :

Ethernet0 is up, line protocol is up Hardware is PQUICC Ethernet, address is 000d.2813.8678 (bia

000d.2813.8678) Description: ****** INSIDE LAN ****** Internet address is 10.10.0.1/24 MTU 1500 bytes, BW 10000 Kbit, DLY 1000 usec, reliability 255/255, txload 1/255, rxload 1/255

Ethernet1 is up, line protocol is up Hardware is PQUICC_FEC, address is 000d.2813.8679 (bia 000d.2813.8679) Description: ***** OUTSIDE INTERFACE ******* Internet address is x.x.x.x/24 MTU 1500 bytes, BW 10000 Kbit, DLY 1000 usec, reliability 255/255, txload 1/255, rxload 1/255

Either way, its probable that your new version doesn't excerise the area of bad DRAM you likely have.

Generally, routers don't crash like that.

While I can't say if I've run that exact version, I've certainly run something around the same vintange and feature set successfully on

831's without having them crash.

Sure.

Nope.

The 831 has a 10Mbps "WAN" port, and a 10Mbps "LAN" port feeding into an internal 4 port 10/100 switch.

(Product specs on page 5, not exactly spelled out that is how it is, having the WAN port at 10Mbps pretty much makes it so).

If you are expecting better than 10Mbps speeds, you do have to be careful of the Cisco low-end, older gear. Not until the ISR/ISR2 gear is throughput approaching something people are expecting out of it now-a-days for run of the mill networking requirements.

Cisco is not known for speedy boxes. If you want tons of features, and super reliability, then cisco is great. If you are expecting throughput or vendor interoperability (ie. especially IPSec VPN setups), then Cisco is not one to look at.

Doug McIntyre wrote in news:4b80bf6d$0$50147$ snipped-for-privacy@newsreader.iphouse.net:

Indeed, I stand corrected. thanks for claryfing..

I'm not about speed, this router (and probably more to come, yay ebay) is to help me learn the basics of IOS and more. They will not be used in any production environment but mainly in my small home network.

innews:4b80bf6d$0$50147$ snipped-for-privacy@newsreader.iphouse.net:

Good that you got it working. I have not investigated your version vs ram but for sure not all images will run on all 830s due to insufficient RAM.

If presssed for features you can do -

iomem-percent 5 !