Don't Back Down

It's somewhat rare that I work with Cisco equipment these days, but it does happen from time to time. Those days that I do, I almost always end up glad that I don't do it more often. Of course, if I did it more often, I would probably be better at it, in which case I wouldn't have quite the problems that I do. So it's sort of a catch-22 - if I did it more often, I'd not run into all the issues I do, and since I don't, I have problems. But that's not really the point here.

I was working on a Cisco 1721 Modular Access Router - this is something like a Linksys Router on steroids, and you can even find them on Amazon (this one came from eBay, I think). There are two primary differences, however - one is that, barring some utilities from Cisco, you have to configure them from the command line and two is that it's modular, meaning you can plug in all sorts of access cards.

One of those cards, the WIC-1ENET, provides an Ethernet connection for the WAN, making it even more like your standard home router. The problem is making this card work like a typical home router.

Read "Configuring a Cisco 1721 for Use as a Broadband Router" »