Recommendation

[PhoneTechMan]

Can anyone steer me in the right direction for what model of router to use on a frame relay circuit? I found a 1600 series still in the box, never been used, in our storage room. Can this be used or do I need a more up to date model? Thanks In Advance.

 

[plshlpme]

how big is your circuit? and how many users do you have at this site?

 

[PhoneTechMan]

We're a health care facility, and this circuit is for a service we subscribe to from Blue Cross, Blue Shield. It's for direct data entry into their system. As far as I know, only about 5-6 people actually use it, and not all concurrently.

 

[JOAMON]

Personally I would stay away from the 1600 series as they have such a limited feature set and 10-base-t half duplex ethernet. It will probably work with the correct interface card but I personally would not use anything less than the 1700 series. 1700 series still end of life with Cisco but has better feature sets available and one fast ethernet port. Can get these used for a good price.

 

[PhoneTechMan]

Joamon, thank for the reply. I was just looking at the one I found in storage, and the 10-baseT turned me off as well. Which 1700 model should I look at?

 

[JOAMON]

1720 or 1721 would be a good choice. See link below for 1721 specs. 1720 older model and has smaller max memory than 1721.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/routers/ps221/products_data_sheet09186a00800920ec.html

Try and get one with at least 16m of flash memory as these are very expensive to upgrade the flash in. Main memory is not to bad but the flash memory is not cheap.

Ebay example of 1720:

http://cgi.ebay.com/CISCO1720-1700-...879762893QQcategoryZ28032QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[PhoneTechMan]

I just had another brainstorm: We just took a 2600 series router out of use, I could use that couldn't I?

 

[JOAMON]

Yes....if it is a 261X series the the ethernet is only speed of 10 but you can force the duplex to full. If 262X 265X 269X series then should have fast ethernet. If you have managed switch connected to ethernet make sure you hard set the port to 10 full as well. I use a 2611 as my ISP router bonding two T1 lines together for 3 meg then connecting that to my 2811 router. Does not matter that ethernet at that point is only 10 as the funnel to the internet is only 3.

 

[PhoneTechMan]

Good deal, it's a 2621 so I'm good to go on that end. Thanks for all of your help.

 

[tech1994]

Hi, for future reference I believe the 1721 is not at EOL and is listed as a suggest replacement for the 1720.

----------------------
Cisco Forum | News

http://www.ciscohq.com

 

[JOAMON]

Sorry bout that. The 1721 and 1760 are still available. With the introduction of the 1800 series I would expect that Cisco will go end of life in the near future with these two models and push everyone towards the 1841.

 

[gwildfire]

Personally the 1600 would be fine for 5 or 6 people, even with 10 half duplex its unlikely your frame relay connection will be anything near that so ethernet speeds arent really an issue. Also as its a single connection, the 2621 will be more than suitable for your needs.

Visit

http://www.Cisco-Engineer.com

for free Cisco rack access.

 

[COMPUTERTECH33]

Would a 2501 work?

 

[plshlpme]

2501 should be fine.. i use a 2514 at home still for my dsl.. on a 5mb/800kb conection an it struggles under full load... but for a T1 or fractional i would think a 2501 could do the job... although it wouldn't be my choice.