[c-nsp] PA-FE-TX vs PA-FE-TX/ISL

[Justin M. Streiner]

On Sat, 18 Aug 2007, Bernd Ueberbacher wrote:

> I'm still learning for my CCNA (to calm my examination nerves *G*) and
> currently fooling around with a 7206 nonVXR router. It has a NPE-200 and
> one PA-FE-TX/ISL. I'd like to get a second interface and had a look on
> eBay, but I'm a bit confused (again). There are PA-FE-TX modules which
> are much more expensive than those $80,- PA-FE-TX/ISL, but what exactly
> is the difference. They are EoL, so I can't find much information. Does
> the name indicate that they just support ISL but no dot1q or is there
> something else?

There's a reason why these cards are practically give-aways on the used 
market :)

Gert is correct - the PA-FEISL-TX is evil.  It has nothing to do with ISL 
vs. 802.1q support.  It supports Token Ring ISL, which is not the same 
thing.  It caused a lot of confusion earlier in the life cycle of the 
71/7200 router line because people assumed that since it says "Ethernet" 
on the card and it has normal-looking TX or FX ports that it will behave 
exactly like a 'real' Ethernet interface.  From what I recall, at the 
time, Cisco didn't do a very good job of noting the differences between 
the two nearly identical looking cards and caused some of their customers 
quite a few headaches in the process (raises hand)...

Here is the End of Sale/End of Life announcement from Cisco:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/modules/ps2033/prod_eol_notice09186a008032d6e3.html