How to tell 2500 series routers apart?

[jasper.grennigan]

Can anyone tell me how the 2500 routers (2501, 2502 etc etc) are different?

JG.

[Josef Oduwo · Accepted solution]

Jasper,

Here is an outline of the 2500 router architecture: http://cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/routers/ps233/products_tech_note09186a0080094e93.shtml. The differences between these routers are in a neat table format, Table 1, in this document.

Please note that from around 12.2, some IOS images are bigger than can be accomodated on the 2500's 16Mb maximum flash size (http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/routers/ps233/products_field_notice09186a00800942ca.shtml) you can't put newer IOS' on these routers...

Cheers,

Josef.

[thisisshanky]

Its very easy. Consider 250X where X = even or odd Just remember a few key points.

a. Most odd number ending routers have ethernet (10baseT) interfaces, while even numbers have token ring interfaces. The wan interfaces available on each series keeps changing as X increases.

2501 - 1 eth, 2 serial

2502 - 1 TR, 2 serial

2503 - 1 eth, 2 serial, 1 bri

2504 - 1 TR, 2 serial, 1 bri

b. 2505, 2507, 2516 are special routers with built in ethernet hubs.

2505 - 2 synchronous serial, 8 hub

2507 - 2 synchronous serial, 16 hub

2516 - 2 synchronous serial, 14 hub, 1 BRI

c. 2509-2512 are access servers, which means they have async interfaces. 2509, 2510 have 8 async ports, while 2511-12 have 16 async ports. 2509 and 2511 have ethernet interfaces, while 2510 and 2512 have token ring interface.

d. 2513, 2514, 2515 are routers with more than 1 ethernet or token ring interface or a combination of both.

2513 - 1TR, 1Eth, 2 serial

2514 - 2 ETH, 2 serial

2515 - 2 TR , 2 serial

e. The next few routers are not so commonly used, but good for old Token ring networks.

2517 has 12 port token ring hub with an isdn port and 2 serial ports

2519 has 24 port toekn ring hub with an isdn port and 2 serial ports

f. 2518 combines the functionality of Ethernet hub with ISDN bri and Synchronous serial ports, all in one router.

g. 2520, 2521, 2522, 2523 have higher port densities for WAN.

2520 - 1 Eth, 1 BRI, 2 sync serial, 2 async serial

2521 - 1 TR, 1 BRI, 2 sync serial, 2 async serial

2522 - 1 Eth, 1 BRI, 2 sync serial, 8 async serial

2523 - 1 TR, 1 BRI, 2 sync serial, 8 async serial

h. 2524 and 2525 are the only modular series of the whole lot. You can add modular cards (older wics, not compatible with any other router series)

The following cards are supported

i. 2-wire switched 56-kbps data service unit/channel service unit (DSU/CSU)

ii. 4-wire 56/64-kbps DSU/CSU

iii. Fractional T1/T1 DSU/CSU

iv. Five-in-one synchronous serial

If you need to read more on all these routers and their architectural differences, visit this link.

http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/access/acs_fix/cis2500/index.htm

I think I left out 2506, but I cant find any

documentation on it.

HTH

Sankar.