The Cisco 2500 series routers provide a variety of models designed for branch office and remote site environments. These routers are typically fixed configuration with at least two... more
A review by bllward on Cisco 2501 - router July 5th, 2007
Author's product rating:
Speed
Slow
Reliability
Excellent
Ease of Installation
Satisfactory
Ease of use
Easy
Value For Money
Excellent
Advantages:
Very Cheap, with lots of features
Disadvantages:
Will help with CCNA, but may stuggle with CCNP
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
I bought one of these routers off ebay to help with my upcoming (Cisco) CCNA exam. These are by no means cutting edge routers, and are obsolete now as they only support 10Mbps via their AUI (lan) port and support a limited amount of protocols. The router itself has one AUI port, which when used with a transceiver can connect to either another router or a switch (at 10Mbps); 2 serial ports which can be configured with a routing protocol such as frame relay to connect to another switch or ISP data terminal equipment, a console port to configure the router itself, and an AUX port for modem connection. Though well past it's sell by date, the switch is perfect to get to grips with Ciscos IOS (internetwork Operating System) and set up simple routed networks in conjuction with other routers and switches. One thing to be aware of when buying one of these second hand is the amount of Flash memory available. To support IOS 12.2, you need at least 8MB. Also, try to find out which version of IOS is preinstalled on the router. You can get hold of later versions of IOS, but it tends to be pricey. Overall, a great piece of kit for the price. If you want one, have a look on ebay where you can probably pick one up for about £10 - £20.
The Cisco 2500 series routers provide a variety of models designed for branch office and remote site environments. These routers are typically fixed configuration with at least two of the following interfaces: Ethernet (AUI), 10BaseT Ethernet hub, Token Ring, Synchronous serial, Asynchronous serial, ISDN BRI. Cisco 2500 routers come with Flash EPROM technology for simplified software maintenance. These systems support a variety of Cisco IOS software feature sets, so you can choose a feature set that supports your specific protocol environment. The software feature sets range from an IP and bridging-only to the full array of Cisco's software functionality, including APPN and RMON. Mission-specific models contain less memory and less hardware functionality to support a subset of protocols. Each mission-specific model can be upgraded to full router capability by downloading a new Cisco IOS software feature set and, if necessary, adding memory.
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