Cisco Systems RJ-45-to-AUX Standard Edition IOS, and 2820 Series Switches, Main Menu Choices, 283

Chapter 15: The Standard Edition IOS

In Depth

The Cisco 1900 and 2820 switches come with two unique IOSs: Standard Edition and Enterprise Edition. The Standard Edition is a character−based IOS, and the Enterprise Edition is similar to the IOS on higher−end routers. The Cisco 3000 series is the only series of switches that comes with a unique IOS; this series offers a graphical user interface (GUI) to configure the switch. In this chapter, we will focus on the setup of the Standard Edition IOS in detail.

The 1900 and 2820 Series Switches

The Catalyst 1900 series switches are Cisco’s entry point into Access layer managed switches. These switches are the only two that work at the Access layer; they can provide up to two 100BaseT or 100BaseFX uplink ports and up to twenty−four 10BaseT ports. The Catalyst 1900 is available in two models: the Standard Edition (SE) and the Enterprise Edition (EE).

The Standard Edition is a low−cost alternative for those migrating from a shared hub environment to a smaller workgroup environment. These switches were specifically designed to be plug−and−play right out of the box with no manual configuration. The Catalyst 1900 SE has 12 or 24 fixed 10BaseT ports with 2 high−speed 100BaseT, or one 100BaseT and one 100BaseFX ports. The Catalyst 1900 switch can be configured using the console port, its Web interface, or Cisco’s Visual Switch Manager. Included in the Standard Edition is support for Domain Name Service (DNS) and Dynamic Host Control Protocol (DHCP) to help with ease of host management. The Standard Edition can be upgraded via the Flash to the Enterprise Edition.

The Enterprise Edition offers the features of the Standard Edition but also provides several high−end solutions. These include Fast EtherChannel, support for Dynamic Inter−Switch Link (DISL), an IOS Command Line Interface (CLI), and support for Cisco Group Management Protocol (CGMP).

The Catalyst 2820 series switch architecture is virtually identical to that of the Cisco Catalyst 1900 series switches. The switch is different because of its height and its uplink bays, which allow for high−speed uplink options such as Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI), Copper Distributed Data Interface (CDDI), 100Mbps, and Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) modules.

In this chapter, we will concentrate on the configuration of the Standard Edition IOS rather than the switch specifications for the 1900 and 2820 series switches.

Note The Catalyst 2820 series routers have been issued an End−of−Life (EOL) notice. This notice means the 2820 is no longer manufactured by Cisco. However, you still need to know how to configure these routers because they still exist in today’s networks.

Now, let’s take a look at the menu−driven interface and how to configure the basics on a Standard Edition IOS on the Cisco Catalyst 1900 and 2820 series.

Main Menu Choices

When you log on to the 1900 switch you are presented with a Main Menu that looks similar to the following:

Catalyst 1900 − Main Menu

[C]Console Settings

[S]System

[N]Network Management

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