how to differentiate routers and switches

[einstein1]

hi,
I am a network analyst...jus started my career....
I am finding it difficult to co relate the series with switches and routers....
This mite sound silly....but I wonder cisco should have had something in mind before giving these sumbers ...rite ?
Could someone explain the funda ?

Regards

 

[Cooky]

Not sure what exactly you're asking...you mean how can you tell if a device is a switch or router just by looking at the model number??
If you work for a while you'll just know...like the most recent LAN switches are 2950, 3560, 4500, and 6550's.

 

[qaa541]

If you look at the switches, the switches typically say "Catalyst ####" (# = a digit), and the routers just say a number ####(no model name). Anytime you see Catalyst, that means it's a switch.

 

[spidey07]

lower number = less power.

There are many, many, many models depending on what the design/application calls for. But after awhile you'll just have it all memorized anyway. Just look through the products section.

found this for you...
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/netsol/ns340...ions_white_paper0900aecd8010c057.shtml

 

[einstein1]

Hi All,
My sincere thanks to cooky , qaa54 and spidey07.
I involve in remote logging always.
So , I never have a chance to know abt prefix" catalyst" in case of switches.
I get a list of devices(usually in 100s) names and its series.
After a while , I kept loggin into devices without caring much abt the series....
Just sometime before , i realised that , series and the devices features does matter...
hence wanted to know !!

Anyway, i got good info from u guys. BIG Thanks.

Looking forward for more answers for my silly q's

 

[spidey07]

That's where a good naming convention comes in handy.

I always put the model in the hostname.

For example...

TX-6509C01-DC

Texas office, 6509 switch (core 01) located in data center.

Also generally "show version" will give you the model and if it is running router or switching software.