Question regarding use of Cisco 1841 router..

Hi all..

It's been a long time since I've used any Cisco routers (>10 years) and I'm very rusty on the nomenclature, etc.. Anyway, I'm thinking of buying a 1841 for use at home as my main router between my in-house network and the Internet in general (via my ISP).. To that end, I've got a few questions for you :

1) Can I use the FastEthernet ports built into this router as my 100Mb port to my ISP (via a cable modem) or must I use a HWIC,WIC, etc for that purpose? Based on what I've read, it seems like I can get away w/ doing this but wanted to confirm.

2) If I want to get support enabled (for getting firmware updates) for one of these, is it going to cost and arm & leg or are there other possibilities?

3) Anyone have any ideas on when the 1841 will be end-of-life'd? It appears to still be a current product, but just curious on this mostly..

Thanks!

Reply to
Rick F
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The 1841 is a pretty nice little router.

Yes, it has two ethernet ports already. You can add on ethernet ports if you wish with the HWIC card. Any interface can act in any role generally on the cisco products.

CON-SNT-C1841T1 costs $124 from CDW? Not too much $$s? I couldn't find the plain contract name, CON-SNT-C1841, but it obviously should be about the same price.

Going by the lifetime of previous cisco products in this class, I'd say you've got another 5 years or so of usable life. Its not that old, and its unlikely anything newer will be out for at least 2 years.

I know of people still running 2501s... If it still does what you need it to, why bother to change?

Reply to
Doug McIntyre

Thanks for all the info.. Now I just have to wait and I can play around with it once I get it.. I read on someone else's thread from a while back that I might need a cross-over ethernet cable between the router and my cable modem possibly.. I guess I'll have to see if that is needed or not. Thanks again.

Reply to
Rick F

Have you considered an 1801?

It has DSL & Ethernet WAN with an 8 port switch. Ideal for your scenario? Or is it a requirement that you have a modular router ?

Reply to
corb

I can think of several other 800 series routers that would be fine aswell - Depends upon services and throughput of WAN

Please note, that the onboard ports are L3 ports, and the HWIC-4ESW ports are L2 ports ! Also the 4ports are a bit strange to stack, if you would like 2 x 4 ports, then you end up with 2 x 3 ports ...

HTH Martin Bilgrav

Reply to
Martin Bilgrav

Yes, I had looked at that model as well.. I ended up deciding that the flexibility and expandability of the 1841 was a bit more the direction I wanted to go after..

Reply to
Rick F

Yes, I had looked at them as well as the 1801.. I like the modularity and expandability of the 1841 since I'm planning on keeping it for quite some time and may add some of the extra cards depending on the direction of my home experiment..

I'm assuming that you're referring to the fact that the switched ports are level-2 vs. level-3 ports.. I'm not sure I follow about the 2x4 comments though..

Reply to
Rick F

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