Understanding IOS upgrades

[cdavies74]

Before my questions, I have tried to read through as many IOS related posts as possible but I feel there are still some questions unanswered.

Prior to buying my first Cisco router I read through cisco.com documentation where many great features were represented. To my surprise, after buying the 1841 none of those were actually included.

I don't mind paying for extra features but I have a hard time finding exactly what I need to do.

In my current IOS version (12.4(7d)) on the Cisco 1841 the Feature Availability has "IP" as enabled. I would like to get "Firewall", "VPN" and "IPS" (if URL filtering is included here) as well. The router has 72MB memory available, a total of 128MB.

So I'd like to know the following:

1. Who do I contact in order to obtain the upgrade, Cisco themselves or the reseller?

2. Do I need to upgrade my memory amount in order to use the requested features mentioned above?

3. In theory, upgrading the IOS is a matter of buying the correct license, downloaded the correct IOS file and install it on the router?

[Jon Marshall · Accepted solution]

Craig

1) The reseller. Very few companies buy direct from Cisco themselves.

2) Unclear. Which feature set are you going for exactly or do you not know yet ?. The best tool for this is Cisco's Feature Navigator. Just select your hardware and the features you want and it will tell you which feature set you need -

http://tools.cisco.com/ITDIT/CFN/jsp/index.jsp

3) Yes.

Jon

[cdavies74]

Thanks again for a swift reply Jon.

Regarding 2) I'm still very new to the feature sets, I have to go trough the list you provided and see what it recommends.

[bretjaquish]

Here are a couple good links understanding router and switch feature sets:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/iosswrel/ps8802/ps5460/prod_bulletin0900aecd80281b17.html

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/iosswrel/ps8802/ps5460/prod_bulletin09186a00801af451.html