RouterGod reporter and Catalyst enthusiast Tom Hatton was tasked with interviewing Anna Nicole Smith about the Cisco Catalyst 1900 series of switches. Anna was born in Mexia, Texas in 1967 and slaved away at such menial jobs as Supermodel and actress until she realized every woman’s dream of marrying an elderly billionaire. At 5′11″ and 165 pounds this buxom blonde is more woman than the average man can handle. But here in Southern California we are surrounded by the most beautiful women in the world and even Anna Nicole Smith seems mediocre by comparison. What does make Anna special is her appreciation for the finer things in life, such as Cisco Catalyst switches. Let’s join Tom as he interviews Anna Nicole Smith at the Patina restaurant in Los Angeles:



Anna at Patina restaurant in Los Angeles.

 Tom

Hi Anna, why don’t you tell our readers how you became familiar with Cisco switches?

Anna

Well, a friend of mine is a diamond salesman, actually he works at Van Cleef and Arpels jewelers in Beverly Hills, I wanted something nice, like a Rolex watch or something.  So my friend showed me a Cisco Switch.  I had never seen a Cisco switch before, but I have seen other LAN switches.  Most LAN switches are really ugly but when I first saw the Cisco switch, I remember thinking how elegant and understated it was.  It was black and dark green.  I fell in love with it, it was a Catalyst 1912.

Tom

There’s no doubt about it, Cisco switches are beautiful.  But it’s how they perform that makes them great.

Anna

I wouldn’t know.  I just collect them.  The Cisco reseller comes by every Thursday.  He leaves six or seven “5 packs” of switches on my doorstep.  I now have over 400 Catalyst switches in my collection.

Tom

Wow!  400 switches, that’s a lot!  Are they all 1900s?

Anna

Yeah, 1912s and 1924s.  Some are Enterprise version.  Hey, are you hungry?  Can we order appetizers?  I want a drink too.  (Anna motions to the queer-gay waiter and we order Escargot and martinis.)  Oh yeah, where were we…my switches.  Yepper, I got lots of switches!

Tom

Can you explain the differences between the different 1900 series switches?

Anna

Sure baby cakes!  OK, here’s the deal, there are 2 types you can order, the Standard version and the Enterprise version.  Then there are 2 basic models the 1912 and the 1924.

Tom

Oh I think I get it!  The 1912 has 12 Ethernet ports, right?

Anna

Nope it has 14!

Tom

14?  That doesn’t seem to make sense. Can you explain that? 

Anna

Well, the 1912 has 12 10BaseT ports and Cisco gives you 2 “bonus” 100BaseT ports.  Likewise the 1924 has 24 10 Megabit Ethernet ports and 2 Fast Ethernet Ports.  And don’t forget you can order these as either Standard or Enterprise.

Tom

Why is there only 2 Fast Ethernet ports and 12 or 24 regular Ethernet ports, why not just make them all Fast Ethernet ports and be done with it?

Anna

Why not 100 Fast Ethernet ports?  The fact is, this is a low end switch aimed at wiring closets and hub replacements.  This is an inexpensive switch, the standard version of the 1912 is about $900.  A 1924 Enterprise version is about $1700.  So you see, these are very affordable for small businesses that want to move to switched Ethernet.  On the standard version, the 2 Fast Ethernet ports can be used when you need to connect to a 100BaseT segment, on the Enterprise version, the 2 Fast Ethernet ports can be used for ISL trunking between switches. 

Tom

What else does the Enterprise version give you?


“Behind every beautiful woman is a beautiful behind”

Anna

The Enterprise version gives you the Cisco IOS Command Line Interface and you can use Uplinkfast for increased reliability.

Tom

How about VLANs?  How many VLANs can a single 1900 switch have?

Anna

Each 1900 can have 4 VLANs hosted on it.  That should be plenty considering this is an access level, wiring closet switch.

Tom

What if my wiring closet is really far away?  Too far for Copper based Ethernet, what can I do?

Anna

No problem, Cisco has thought of everything.  Buy a 1924F.  The F suffix means 100BaseFX.  That’s means that by using optical fiber, your little switch can be up to 2 kilometers away!

Tom

Very nice!  What do the 1900s use for CPU’s and how much memory do they have?

Anna

The 1900s use Intel 486 chips.  Each 1900 comes with 1 MB of Flash and 2 MB of RAM memory.  That’s plenty of memory for this type of switch.  While we’re talking hardware, each 1900 can store 1024 MAC addresses and has a 1 Gbps backplane.  And another thing, baby cakes, all the Ethernet ports support full or half duplex connections.

Tom

Hey Anna, I’m impressed!  You really know your stuff.  Thanks a lot!

Anna

My pleasure, pumpkin.  Let’s drink some more martinis.

 

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