Advantages: ease of use, strong, durable, linking into GAL, remote managment and upgrades from call manager. Disadvantages: Call quality is dependant on quality of the Network. Duplex settings, over utilized network, etc
In my experience with the Cisco IP phone 7941, which has been for 5 years or so, has been nothing but pleasure. There features to link into AD and the ability to log onto any phone in the building and look up a user on the GAL on AD is very handy indeed. Call Transfer,Conference, Mute are the standard features.
The Phones will have to be set up to work with a call manager, Which is a centre point to manage the phones, and has the ability to record conversation for quality control, etc.
They have 2 options when it comes to powering these phones, on is to buy a power adapter, the other is to buy a Cisco Switch that can supply power to the phones via Ethernet.
They are strong and reliable, they have been used as call centre phones, and we know what kind of abuse they would be put through in that environment.
All in all, i would rate ...
Advantages: More money @ work, More Knowledge Disadvantages: !!!!!!
I work in the Network Security Industry & work for a company called Equant (Who provide Global Network solutions & own the largest privately owned Network in the World), & was looking for a basic level Cisco course to achieve an acreditation.
The ICND course (Interconnecting Cisco Network Devices) is an ideal course to start. Although very Cisco orientated (as you could imagine), it doe sgive you a valuable basic knowledge of how the Cisco products interact with each other & other devices & networks (ie: Novell, which has recently dumped it's own IPX protocol, in favour of IP, this makes things easier as you can now deal with IP addressing & not just MAC addresses).
I went on an ICND course provided by a company called Getronics, based in Milton Keynes, I am now planning to take the Cisco CCNA exam, which is the first Certification ...
Advantages: Very Cheap, with lots of features Disadvantages: Will help with CCNA, but may stuggle with CCNP
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 ...
