The setup documentation, on the CD that is in the box and the website, for the Linksys SRW2024 switch instructs users to use a baud rate of 19,200 to connect to the console. Upon connecting at the rate everything in the console looks like gibberish. Connecting at 38,400 opens the telnet session properly and allows access to the configuration. I verified in the settings that the baud rate is set to 38,400. Luckily I did not follow my initial thought that the firmware was corrupt.