switch question

rkholmes

Hi,

Whats the difference in a switch and a network switch? I see that there are icons for both in the front of the CCNA Press self study guides.

Is a Catalyst 1900 a switch or a network switch?

In my complete Cisco noobness (however having scored quite well on my Network+ exam) I am going to take a guess and say that they are one in the same piece of hardware...the naming differences come into play where ever the switch happens to be deployed in the network.

Could someone who knows the answer chime in please.

Oh BTW....this is a great resource for those on any certification path.

Mad props to Mr Johann!

Webmaster

Thank you thank you

I couldn't find the network switch in my Cisco Press books but I'm quite sure your book refers to a rather simple difference:
-the switch is used to connect hosts (clients/servers, other devices in a LAN)
- the network switch refers to a switch that interconnects different networks (LANs and/or WANs) for example a Frame Relay switch (typically integrated in a router), or an ATM switch.

Sartan

I think what you're talking about is a Layer 2 switch and a layer 3 switch.

A Cisco router can sort of but not really work on layer 2 addressing. If you have more than one interface in it, it'll just fly through that based on arp entries.

I beleive the term 'network' is used in addition to 'switch' to show that it's a layer 2 (data) and layer 3 (network) switch at the same time.

It could also do with something called VLANing, when an administrative vlan is configured on a switch and thereby picks up layer 3 properties, including but not limited to simple RIP, SNMP, telnet, etc for management purposes.

Your basic netmate switch won't be able to do that, missing configuration options, and could therefore be classified as a 'dumb' switch.

Or, it could just be used as to not sound repetative.

I'd say read through the text and get a little familiarization, I dont notice any difference in the conventions myself.

rkholmes

Thank you both for the very thourough answers.

Webmaster

That was my first thought as well. But a layer 3 switch has it's own icon (box with a router icon in it) and so does a multi layer switch (box with arrows on it like it has a shiny sun.) IMO the term network switch would be a rather bad description for a layer-3 or multi-layer switch, they should and would probably use the corresponding icons for that. I think it would better suit a ATM, Frame Relay/ISDN switch, but, rkholmes? Can you describe the icon?