Question on 1760

[neutec]

Hello ALl,
I called Cisco to help me spec out a new router. I need to know if this will work as I need it to. I ordered a Cisco 1760 nrouter with WIC-4ESW wic card with is a for port ethernet card. I want to load balance to T-1 lines. Each T-1 line has a Adtrans router provided from the ISP. I will be taking the ethernet out of each Adtrans router and going into my 1760 WIC card. then I want to have one ehternet out for the lan side. Will this work with that WIC card?

Thanks

 

[nyy1023]

I think I lost some info in the detail.

You are getting 2 t1's?
You have a WIC with 4 ethernet interfaces?
You want to load SHARE on the 2 t1's
Anything you want to do on the inside?

I can help furthur but I am a little hazy with what you are trying to do.

sorry

 

[neutec]

Yes, I have two T-1's. Each t-1 already has a router connected to it by the ISP. I would like to load balance between the two t-1. I have odered a Cisco 1760 router with a Wic card. The WIC card is a 4 port ethernet module.
As far as for the inside, I just need one ethernet port from the router to plug into my firewall.

 

[IllegalOperation]

Assuming you are using these routers simply as your WAN termination (you mentioned you have a firewall), why not just use ONE router instead of three? It will be much less of a pain in the ass to manage, along with being more cost effective.

Assuming all you just need to forward IP services out to the internet without anything fancy needed on your WAN router (VPN, access list, compression, etc), you should be able to get away with a simple 1721 with 2 WIC-1DSU-T1 cards. Otherwise, a 2600 series should definately work. It should be able to effectively load balance, although I would monitor it closely just to make sure. You can either use the ip ce feature for per packet balancing, or set up a multilink session with your provider. Like I said, this all depends on what exactly you want the WAN router to do.

Whatever the case, you should eliminate the three routers and integrate everything into one. Not only will it save you some stress, but it will probably make your bosses happy too....

 

[neutec]

Thye only reason Im using three router is two of the routers have been supplied from the ISP as t-1 termention points. The ISP has already installed the router with a dsu/csu card to terminate the t-1. I now have two ethernet ports (one for each router) that I would like to load share. Oh adn I failed to mention that I do not have access to the ISP routers. They just gave me ethernet out. I was told they configure there router as a simple bridge.

 

[nyy1023]

hmmmm...sounds like you have a managed solution with your ISP. Do they allow you to tell them how you want the connection set up?

Ill has pointed out some good install tips that would make your admin life a little better. However, if they own the equipment then there is nothing you can do but hope for the best and hope that they will set up the best solution for you.

 

[IllegalOperation]

neutec, let me guess - you are using LDMI right?

I messed around with the "managed solution" once, because the router they give you for basically free is very tempting. I ended up changing that service, however, after a week. I found a loophole in this solution, where you can tell your provider you no longer want it "managed"....and you want to operate it yourself. All they required was my signature stating I no longer want them to manage the equipment, and they handed it over to me for free because they failed to let their billing department know about the service change.

Anyways, what you can do is tell your provider you no longer want the managed solution. Sometimes they ask for their routers back, sometimes they ask you to purchase the routers, sometimes they just simply forget (as in my case). Whatever the case, you will at least save yourself around $75 per month per ciruit....and at the most you will have two free Adtran routers you can sell on ebay. Win/win situation.

If you do stick with the three routers, I dont see any problems with load balancing the traffic over the ethernet interfaces. I could be wrong, because load balancing with 10/100 ports is not very common and I never tried it. IP CEF should do the trick...

 

[neutec]

Well I took your advise and called the ISP, which by the way is Mpower. They said I can use my own router is I like. They sent me a configuration lisdt I need to have on my cisco router before they can switch it over. This is what they sent me.

Cisco Serial interface configuration for T1 to CE200 DSLAM

interface Serial0/0
description Physical interface to DSLAM
no ip address
encapsulation frame-relay IETF
no ip mroute-cache
no keepalive
service-module t1 timeslots 1-24
service-module t1 fdl ansi
!
interface Serial0/0.1 point-to-point
ip address 208.57.X.X 255.255.255.X
frame-relay interface-dlci 16

Looks like they want me to use a serial connection to connect to the T-1. Would I still need to buy a DSU/CSU WIC card? Any help on this I would appreciate.

 

[nyy1023]

With this config they are assuming that you have a WIC with a CSU/DSU internal. If you are going to use a drop and insert then you will not need some of the commands. I would recommend a DSU WIC that way you can just have it all in one.

Good Luck

 

[IllegalOperation]

Great, your battle is halfway over now. Yes, for your Cisco 1760 router, you will need to purchase two WIC cards. The one you need is...

WIC-1DSU-T1 (latest out is V2, but that is not needed)

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/routers/ps221/products_data_sheet09186a00801a9184.html

It has an integrated DSU/CSU, which you will be needing. The price is in the lower three figures range, but it should be cheaper than the WIC-4ESW card you have. As far as your 1760 goes, that should be fine - but it might be overkill. You can get away with a lower end model.


P.S. LDMI bought out MPower a few months ago.