I am looking for a second hand Cisco router but I am lost with all the different model numbers.
Is there any numbering scheme or are they random?
Bumpity Bumpity?
Are you talking about the home / small business (formerly Linksys) part numbers, or the original Cisco commercial / ISP / etc. product line?
I am interested on the enterprise level Cisco products.
Ok. Let’s start with network switches. These are generally in the Catalyst product family, with larger model numbers generally indicating more ports / modularity / additional interface types.
In one particular family, the Catalyst 3750, model numbering generally starts with “WS-C3750”. Next comes an optional letter indicating whether all of the ports are Gigabit-capable (“G”) or whether only some (or none) of the ports are Gigabit-capable (no letter). Next you have a dash (-), then the number of ports (mostly). After the number of ports, there will be some indication of the port type. Various combinations of S=SFP, T=twisted-pair Ethernet without Power over Ethernet (PoE), P=twisted-pair with PoE, and D=10G XENPAK ports are available. A W indicates that the switch can operate as a WAN access controller for Cisco lightweight access points. Next is a dash, then a letter S for standard software feature set or E for some type of enhanced feature set.
So, WS-C3750-24PS-S would be a 24-port 10/100 PoE switch with some number of SFP ports, running the standard feature set. WS-C3750G-12S-E is a switch with 12 SFP ports, running the enhanced feature set. WS-C3750G-16TD-E is a switch with 16 10/100/1000 ports and 1 10G XENPAK port, running the enhanced feature set.
On top of that, there are newer-generation V2 models in that product line, as well as an E series and an X series.
Not all the possible combinations exist as actual models. Also, the letter codes I described above only apply to this particular family of switches. Other Catalyst models will use different numbering schemes.
That’s about as complicated as it gets in the fixed-configuration switches. In the larger chassis-based switches, there’s an overall model number for the chassis system (like “Catalyst 6500”) which only describes the product family. “Catalyst 6509” would tell you it is a 9-slot chassis. That’s still an empty chassis, though - you need to specify which supervisor card(s) (CPU) you want, as well as what line (interface) cards you want. There’s no way of knowing what is in any given Catalyst 6500 switch without listing all of the installed modules.
If this is the sort of thing you’re looking for, reply. I’ll do routers next.
Note that this description (and the ones to come) only describes reasonably-current, mainstream products. The Catalyst series grew out of at least 3 or 4 corporate acquisitions by Cisco, and the older modules had rather inconsistent naming / numbering.
Thank you, this is exactly what I am looking for. Please go on!