Hardware Selection

You should know some basics about a few of the hardware platforms Cisco offers for remote access. Specifically, you need to know the information in Table 2.3 for the Cisco 800, 1600, 1700, 2500, 2600, 3600, 3700, AS5000, and 7200. Knowing how many and which interface types are available on each hardware platform will help you select the correct router for each of the different environments.

Table 2.3. General Router Platforms and Capabilities

Router	Capabilities
800	ISDN Basic Rate Interface (BRI), serial, Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), and broadband ports with Cisco IOS software
1600	ISDN BRI, 1 WAN slot, and 1 LAN port
1700	2 WAN slots, as many as 2 voice interface card (VIC) slots, and 1 or 2 LAN ports
2500	2 high-speed serial ports (up to T1), up to 8 low-speed serial ports (up to 64Kbps), 1 or 2 10Mbps LAN interfaces, and up to 1 ISDN BRI
2600	1 or 2 fixed LAN ports (10 or 10/100Mbps), 2 WAN slots, and 1 network module slot
3600/3700	2 (36/3720), 4 (36/3740), or 6 (36/3760) network module slots with no fixed interfaces on the 3x20 and 3x40 and 2 fixed Fast Ethernet LAN interfaces on the 3x60
AS5000	Access server with support for multiple T1/E1 interfaces and digital, internal modems
7200	Wide range of WAN connectivity options and high port density for maximum scalability