Firewall software feature on Cisco 1720/ IOS version

[hollydeb]

I have just purchased a cisco 1720 with 3 ethernet ports - 1 + 2 insertable ethernet cards - it took a while to figure out that the IOS (12.1) that was installed on the router did not support the Wic-1enet that I purchased with the system - I found the problem/solution at this site - thanks - so I downloaded IOS 12.2(4t)and the cards now work =
Problem:
I have also purchased with the router the firewall feature pack - when I went to install the firewall it seems as though it is included with an older version of the IOS - 12.05 -
My concern is if I load the firewall my ethernet cards will no longer work with an older IOS- when I load the firewall will it overwrite the newer IOS - 12.2 - or is the firewall a module and not the IOS-12.05- with the firewall included?
I hope that this is a clear question -

This is my first experience with cisco and I was surprised to get a piece of hardware (router) and insertable ethernet cards (wic-1enet) and the software installed on the router did not support the ethernet cards purchased with it -and then the firewall appears to present the same problem -
Thanks for any help
Holly

 

[netmediasystems]

Holly - Your question is pretty clear...you need to get a hold of a IOS version that supports all the functions you are looking for. Although, you might be thinking "I know that." One thing you need to know is how much memory you have...not flash memory, but actual RAM. to find out that you can do a "sh ver." The number to look for is towards the bottom and will say something like "14848k/1536k mem." This would indicate 16mb of RAM. You add the numbers together. You must have enough to support the IOS you load!!! The IOS and the firewall feature set are apart of one IOS set. If you load that IOS with the firewall feature set, you will be loading an entire new IOS. One that may not support the add-on WIC cards. Hope my wordy explanation is helpful.

brian