Which WIC card do I need?

beef1218

Hi!
I am using High Speed Internet from Comcast, connecting my cable modem to my Linksys router via a CAT5 cable.
Since I am starting towards my CCENT, I wanna buy a 2620XM (or other 26X0xm) router to replace my linksys router.

The 26x0XM only has 1 FE interface, so I need a WIC card to connect to my cable modem.
I thought I only needed a WIC-1ENET card, but I found that wasn't supported by 26x0XM.
I am not sure which WIC card I should get. Can some one please help?

Thank you very much!

Satcom

crazy i want to do the same thing! thx for posting this

i actually want to replace the modem since it is integrated with the router / wifi access point

since i am operating on a fiber connection i dont want to bottleneck the speed on my network.. but i think any cisco router with IOS with gigabit ports is out of my price range..and i dont think my network actually operates at over 100 Mb/s anywhere in the pipeline or signal flow... so the 2620 maybe a good choice for me....

tiersten

beef1218 wrote: »

I am using High Speed Internet from Comcast, connecting my cable modem to my Linksys router via a CAT5 cable.
Since I am starting towards my CCENT, I wanna buy a 2620XM (or other 26X0xm) router to replace my linksys router.

I wouldn't do that personally. A 2620XM is only rated for 30KPPS and 15.36Mbps. That is without any features enabled like ACLs. The rule of thumb is that you halve the throughput for each feature you enable.

A 1841 is only rated to handle 2xT1/E1 even though its listed performance is 75KPPS and 38.40Mbps.

beef1218 wrote: »

The 26x0XM only has 1 FE interface, so I need a WIC card to connect to my cable modem.
I thought I only needed a WIC-1ENET card, but I found that wasn't supported by 26x0XM.
I am not sure which WIC card I should get. Can some one please help?

You can't get an Ethernet WIC for a 2600XM. The only way of adding additional Ethernet interfaces are through Network Modules. The NM-1E, NM-4E and NM-16ESW are the only ones supported. The Fast Ethernet NMs won't work. The NM-16ESW is a 16 port 10/100 switch module.

wastedtime

While I agree with tiersten that it isn't the recommended setup. I have for quite a few years now had a 2621 with nat overload, decent sized access list, and a few other services running and got over 10Mbps. You will have to tweak some settings in nat but overall I had no problems and it has been very reliable(after the tweaks).

Forsaken_GA

tiersten wrote: »

The Fast Ethernet NMs won't work.

Sure they will!

dorne#show diag
Slot 0:
C2611XM 2FE Mainboard Port adapter, 3 ports
Port adapter is analyzed
Port adapter insertion time 3w3d ago
EEPROM contents at hardware discovery:
Hardware Revision : 3.0
PCB Serial Number : FFFF
Part Number : 73-7679-04
RMA History : 00
RMA Number : 0-0-0-0
Board Revision : A0
Deviation Number : 0-0
Product (FRU) Number : C2611XM-2FE
EEPROM format version 4
EEPROM contents (hex):
0x00: 04 FF 40 03 6B 41 03 00 C1 0B FF FF FF 46 46 46
0x10: 46 FF FF FF FF 82 49 1D FF 04 04 00 81 00 00 00
0x20: 00 42 41 30 80 00 00 00 00 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF
0x30: FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF
0x40: FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF
0x50: FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF
0x60: FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF
0x70: FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF

WIC Slot 0:
Serial 1T WAN daughter card
Hardware revision 1.1 Board revision A0
Serial number 5300152 Part number 73-1775-02
FRU Part Number WIC-1T=
Test history 0x0 RMA number 00-00-00
Connector type Wan Module
EEPROM format version 1
EEPROM contents (hex):
0x20: 01 02 01 01 00 50 DF B8 49 06 EF 02 00 00 00 00
0x30: 50 00 00 00 97 04 14 01 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF

Slot 1:
Fast-ethernet Port adapter, 1 port
Port adapter is analyzed
Port adapter insertion time 3w3d ago
EEPROM contents at hardware discovery:
Hardware revision 1.0 Board revision G0
Serial number 19578149 Part number 800-03490-02
FRU Part Number NM-1FE-TX=
Test history 0x0 RMA number 00-00-00
EEPROM format version 1
EEPROM contents (hex):
0x00: 01 44 01 00 01 2A BD 25 50 0D A2 02 00 00 00 00
0x10: 80 00 00 00 00 05 24 00 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF
0x20: FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF
0x30: FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF

tiersten

Forsaken_GA wrote: »

Sure they will!

Hmm. The NM-1FE-TX isn't listed as being supported by Cisco and other people have complained about them not being recognised.

Forsaken_GA

They were kind of flaky for support on the regular 2600 series, at least up until 12.3. After that, I never had a problem getting them to recognize. The XM's have never given me a problem, as long as they were legit cisco hardware. I used to work for a Cisco reseller, so got lots of hands on experience with the hardware, and counterfit gear can make a router do some really funky stuff. I think Cisco fixes alot of crap without telling folks, as I've seen stuff with the same part number, but different revision numbers refuse to work in the same chassis (ie, one will, one wont). There's also 2610's out there that won't do full duplex on their ethernet ports

tiersten

Forsaken_GA wrote: »

They were kind of flaky for support on the regular 2600 series, at least up until 12.3. After that, I never had a problem getting them to recognize. The XM's have never given me a problem, as long as they were legit cisco hardware. I used to work for a Cisco reseller, so got lots of hands on experience with the hardware, and counterfit gear can make a router do some really funky stuff

Hmm. Learn something new every day. Guess you can try a NM-1FE-TX in a 2600XM but don't complain if it doesn't work You're still stuck with the routing performance limitations of the CPU tho.

Forsaken_GA

to address the original question -

My setup at home is along the same lines. I have a 2611XM with an NM-1FE-TX. The NM port is hooked to the cable modem, and the other two ports are hooked to other switches. The 2611XM does NAT overload and it works alright. It also does InterVLAN routing over the other two ports, and whenever I'm doing large file transfers between VLAN's, I have to rate limit it, otherwise it will kill the router, it can in no way route between VLAN's at wire speed.

My original setup back when I was poor was even more funky. I had one 2610. I trunked it's port to a switch, and hooked the cable modem into the switch as well, and also had two vlans configured on the switch. So I was doing router on a stick with three vlans, one of them being my uplink to Comcast. Let's just say that I don't recommend that setup in terms of performance, you're better off with the linksys

beef1218

Thank you everyone for your help.

It seems we came up with a conclusion: I can only connect a 26x0XM to my cable modem via a NM module, but will sacrifice the performance because the limit of the router.

Unfortunately, I already ordered a NM 4A/S for this future 26x0XM (because I thought spending $33 for 4 serial ports was more worth than WIC-1T/2T). This NM will occupy the only NM slot on 26X0XM, so I guess I have to give up this idea for now.

By the way, I think a 2650XM with 40 kpps may be better if I still want this unrecommended setup. Or hopefully I can afford some better performance routers.

Forsaken_GA

Yup, lack of Ethernet WIC's is one of the 2600(xm or not) series weak points. I don't know what your cash reserves are like, but you may want to consider going to a 3600 series router. Fully loaded 3640's are pretty cheap these days, though some of the NM's are kind of pricey.

You could also always drop Comcast and switch to your local DSL provider and user a WIC-1ADSL

tiersten

Whats your budget like? A Cisco 851 would do what you want and isn't too expensive.

beef1218

tiersten, 851 only has FE ports. It's kinda hard to be connected with other router in the future. Plus there aren't many 851s available on ebay (less than 10), which makes it hard to find good deals. However, it is a solution for my setup, I will keep it in mind.

Forsaken_GA, I didn't pay any attention to 3640 before, and now I think it is a very scalable choice. Price for fully loaded 3640s is higher than 26x0XM, but I will be looking for good deals on it.

PS. My budget is really.......... I don't know which word I should use. I don't know if I should even be spending any money because I haven't found a job and I need to start to pay back my $18000 student load next year. lol

tiersten

beef1218 wrote: »

tiersten, 851 only has FE ports. It's kinda hard to be connected with other router in the future. Plus there aren't many 851s available on ebay (less than 10), which makes it hard to find good deals. However, it is a solution for my setup, I will keep it in mind.

Nevermind. Skip the 851. I was remembering the performance values incorrectly. You'd want a 871 or 881 which are expensive.