The Cisco WS-C2960X-24PD-L series switches are best suited for small branch offices because they come with intelligent services. Small branch offices can benefit from converged networks, which is why they use these switches in the first place. These switches provide scalable management, unified network services, and enhanced security for mobile and Unified Communications applications.

Catalyst 2960 Compact Switches

The Cisco catalyst 2960 compact switches are designed for deployments outside the wiring closet because they are small-form factor switches. They not have only unavailable cable guards for securing Ethernet switch and cables but also durable metal shell, accessible under the desk or wall mounting, no fan for silent operation, and to prevent theft, they provide a great function which is called a security lock. Now you can easily offer intelligent services such as Network Admission Control for a micro branch office, Cruise ship, classroom, office workspace, or any other wiring constrained environments. Cisco WS C2960X 24PD L compact switches also come with a magnet and just in case of rack mounting, you can also always purchase the Compact switch rack mount.

Dual-Purpose Uplinks

Dual-purpose uplink is a combination of one SFP-based Gigabit Ethernet port and one 10/100/1000 TX copper port, but the thing about this is that only one of these two ports can be used at a time. This kind of flexibility added to the uplink allows the use of very high-density fiber uplink-based stacks in a very cost-effective manner. Dual-purpose uplinks also provide a Gigabit-speed trunk, full-duplex for Catalyst 2960 series switch stack.

Redundant Power Supply (RPS) support

Convert data and voice network has a vast power availability when a Cisco WS C2960X 24PD L series which is combined with the Cisco RPS 2300 redundant power system that’s needed for protection against an uninterruptible power supply system and internal power supply failures to provide safety against power outages. There is another thing that is important to note that RPS support is not available in catalyst 2960 LAN Lite switches and the catalyst 2960 Compact switches.

Notable differences between the Cisco 2960 catalyst LAN Lite switches and LAN base switches

Cisco Catalyst 2960 LAN Base switches have several advantages that can be used by small branch offices. These benefits are as mentioned below:

• Support for a wide range of SFP transceivers as well as RPS support.
• With the help of DHCP snooping, layer 2-4 to access control lists (ACLs), and a pervasive network admission control capability such as 802.1x and Web authentication, you can get enhanced and advanced security.
• There is also higher network level availability with features such as Link State Tracking and Flex Links.
• You will get Gigabit Ethernet connectivity in 8, 24, and 48 port configurations.
• Many advancements such as MLD snooping, IP SLA responder, and an increased number of VLANs.
• You will also get additional QoS capabilities where the LAN Base supports differentiated services code point (DSCP), policy and class maps, policing, configurable queue weights, thresholds, buffers, and AutoQoS.

Similarities Between Cisco 2960 Catalyst Lan Lite and Lan Base Switches

There are multiple similarities between both kinds of switches, and they also support similar capabilities, which are mentioned below:

• There are numerous troubleshooting and monitoring tools, such as SPAN, TDR, and UDLD.
• You’ll also find a complete Spanning Tree protocol support and multicast support in hardware with Filtering, Querier, and IGMP Snooping.
• Voice-aware port and voice VLAN security along with Root guard and BPDU guard.
• Another standard capability between these switches is the baseline network admission control and the link aggregation, which is done by using the Port Aggregation Protocol (PAgP).
• There are also plenty of network management tools supported by Cisco network assistant, Cisco catalyst device manager, and Cisco Works.
• Both the catalyst 2960 LAN Base and LAN Lite switches have highly secure and scalable network management, which includes Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), Secure Copy Protocol (SCP), and Secure Shell (SSH).

Track or Monitor Activities in A Network

IDSs are a program and a function installed to track and monitor the activities in a network. The Cisco Catalyst 2960 series can complement this method through particular features, which include MAC address notification. For the network administrators to know where and when the users have come on the network, the Mac address notification sends an alert to the management station so that the administrator was there can take appropriate actions against them. The user can be tracked by the DHCP interface tracker to know exactly where the user is physically connected to a network. The DHCP tracker provides both the port ID and switch to a DHCP server. Therefore, the DHCP snooping helps the administrator track both the static and dynamic Mac/IP mapping tables.