I like using VWIC-2MFT-T1 card since it gives me the ability to save WIC slots on smaller routers, like Cisco 1841. If you’re also in a budget, it is quite useful to combine voice and data T1 with this card. Though, you may want to separate them so it won’t be a single point of failure.
The first time I’ve installed this on a 2821 router, I didn’t see any serial interfaces at all in the show ip int br output, as shown below. Second thing I checked was, if the card was being recognized using show diag and show ver, as shown below.
Router#show ip int br
Interface IP-Address OK? Method Status Protocol
GigabitEthernet0/0 unassigned YES unset administratively down down
GigabitEthernet0/1 unassigned YES unset administratively down down
Router#show ver | i T1
2 Channelized (E1 or T1)/PRI ports
Router#show diag | i VWIC
VWIC2-2MFT-T1/E1 - 2-Port RJ-48 Multiflex Trunk - T1/E1
Product (FRU) Number : VWIC2-2MFT-T1/E1Looking at the output, the card was being recognized so I asked myself why was not seeing the serial interfaces. Upon reading Cisco’s documentation, I discovered that I needed to issue commands to enable them and show up as serial interfaces. Though, this may vary router/IOS to router/IOS. When I installed it on a Cisco 1841, I didn’t have to use card type command. In this particular scenario, I am using a Cisco 2901 router with IOS version 15. Normally, you can determine this by doing a show run to see if card type command is needed, as shown below.
Router#sh run Building configuration... Current configuration : 880 bytes ! ! No configuration change since last restart ! version 15.0 service timestamps debug datetime msec service timestamps log datetime msec no service password-encryption ! hostname Router ! boot-start-marker boot-end-marker ! ! card type command needed for slot/vwic-slot 0/0 ! card type command needed for slot/vwic-slot 0/1 ! card type command needed for slot/vwic-slot 0/2 ! no aaa new-model ! Output omitted for brevity
As you can see from above, there’s a message that you need to issue the card type command. The commands you need to enable the VWIC-2MFT-T1 or VWIC2-2MFT-T1 are shown below.
Router(config)#card type t1 0 0 Router(config)#controller t1 0/0/0:0 Router(config-controller)#framing esf Router(config-controller)#linecode b8zs Router(config-controller)#channel-group 1 timeslots 1-24 Router(config-controller)# Feb 17 01:07:29.255: %LINK-3-UPDOWN: Interface Serial0/0/0:1, changed state to down Feb 17 01:07:30.255: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface Serial0/0/0:1, changed state to down Router(config-controller)#controller t1 0/0/0:1 Router(config-controller)#channel-group 1 timeslots 1-24 Router(config-controller)# Feb 17 01:08:01.031: %LINK-3-UPDOWN: Interface Serial0/0/1:1, changed state to down Feb 17 01:08:02.031: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface Serial0/0/1:1, changed state to down Router(config-controller)#do sh ip int br Interface IP-Address OK? Method Status Protocol GigabitEthernet0/0 unassigned YES unset administratively down down GigabitEthernet0/1 unassigned YES unset administratively down down Serial0/0/0:1 unassigned YES unset down down Serial0/0/1:1 unassigned YES unset down down
Again, this may not be a good idea if you’re concern about single point of failure. However, I find these cards pretty reliable and I have not seen them fail. They’re best if you’re concern with WIC/VWIC slot density, especially when you start using more than two bonded T1s.
I hope this has been helpful and thank you for reading!
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