Form Factor and Ports
- Single-wide HWIC: Fits into HWIC slots on supported routers, not WIC/VIC slots .
- Two Fast Ethernet Ports: Provides two 10/100 Mbps Layer 3 routed ports with RJ-45 connectors .
- Hardware Requirements: For HWIC-1FE and HWIC-2FE, the minimum Cisco IOS version is 12.4(11)XJ or later (some sources cite 12.4(15)T) .
Supported Platforms
- Cisco 1841: Supports the 1-port HWIC only; the 2-port is not supported .
- Cisco 2800 Series: The 2-port HWIC is not supported on 2801, 2811, 2821, or 2851 models .
- Cisco 3800 Series: The 2-port HWIC is supported on 3825 (max 2 cards) and 3845 (max 4 cards) .
Ethernet and VLAN Features
- VLAN Tagging: Supports IEEE 802.1Q trunking for inter-VLAN routing .
- Auto Features: Autosensing, autonegotiation, and Auto-MDIX for automatic cable detection .
- Unique MAC Address: Each interface has its own MAC address, not shared with other router interfaces .
- Ethernet Protocols: Supports IEEE 802.3 with SAP, SNAP, and 802.1p for QoS precedence .
Routing and QoS Features
- Layer 3 Routing: Full per-port ACLs, IP addressing, and routing equivalent to onboard LAN interfaces .
- QoS Support: WRED, CAR, precedence mapping (802.1p), MAC address filtering, and extended ACLs .
- Advanced IOS Features: GRE, IPv6, IPsec, L2TPv3, DHCP, NAT, and PPPoE client .
Network Management and Redundancy
- Management: SNMP support, CiscoWorks LAN Management Suite, and Cisco NetFlow accounting .
- High Availability: Supports HSRP, VRRP, and GLBP for gateway redundancy .
- Multicasting: Cisco Group Management Protocol and IGMP .
Restrictions and Considerations
- No Jumbo Frames: Maximum MTU is fixed at 1500 bytes, not configurable .
- No Switching ASIC: These are native Layer 3 routed ports; bridging uses the router CPU, and no switching features are supported .
- Not Hot-Swappable: Online insertion and removal (OIR) is not supported; power down the router before inserting or removing the card .
- No ISL or Flow Control: Cisco Inter-Switch Link trunking and 802.3x flow control are not supported .
