Cisco 2960 advice

Hi all

I am looking at the Cisco 2960 switches for sale and lots on ebay. Can anyone advise if I buy a used/reconditioned unit is there anything I need to look out for? not many seem to come with a power supply and say they are powered over Ethernet.

cheers

Popeye

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Make sure it’s been reset to factory defaults, as doing this is not straightforward. I would avoid a PoE version unless you specifically want to use it to be powered from another switch. Other than that, just plug it in and use it as a regular unmanaged switch.

There is a difference between the unit offering PoE and it requiring PoE, so worth identifying which you want to use.

I initially acquired a PoE output capable 2960 which worked well, but was audibly noisy in my room as one of the internal supplies ‘sizzled’ quietly so I returned and got full refund and got a non-PoE 2960 which is totally quiet and I’m very happy with it. Not having another PoE internal supply is one less thing to go wrong and was a suggestion from others on the forum as possibly slightly better.

My version has IEC mains socket - it came ‘reset’ so ensure with supplier it has that done - it seem almost all have been reset as default is resold by someone handling a lot of units.

Well worth it for me I just plug-in and it was instant upgrade stand-alone with no programming required.

DB.

You can also get Cisco Refresh Program units which are refurbed by Cisco to as-new level

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Hi all, hope I’ve not cocked up. I have just won on eBay this CISCO 2960 WS-C2960C-8TC-S.

Not sure if it has been factory reset. Can some tell me that what I have bought should be fine to use with my system.

Regards

Popeye

If you’re patient you can likely find new/unused Cisco switches. I just got a 2018 2960 PD version that was unused for $80 USD shipped.

I have just ordered this one and it’s the new style white switch and was £70

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But I am concerned it’s not the right thing and what to do if it’s not had a factory reset

Have you asked the seller if it’s had a factory reset? For an IT professional this would be a very easy thing to do. If it turns out that you need to do it yourself, it’s perfectly possible if you can be bothered, just be prepared for a bit of head scratching.

Cheers Chris, I have asked and he has confirmed it has but we shall see. How will I know?

Just press the front button some time long ( 15 seconds perhaps) and it will be factory reset.

A factory reset switch should work just like a simple unmanaged switch, just power it up, connect your devices to the ports, and it should work. If any ports don’t work, or you get any odd behaviour, it may be a sign that it had a config left by a previous user.
When powered up, they take a few minutes to fully start up, so leave it for a few minutes before you connect anything to it, make sure the lights on the fromt panel have stopped flashing, and it should then work.

If a previous user has configured the switch, it is often necessary to log in and clear it by doing a proper factory reset. Pressing the reset button does not do this.

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What do the state spies ascending on the left mean?

Per CISCO documentation:

Resetting the switch deletes the configuration and reboots the switch.

To reset the switch:

• Press and hold the Mode button. The switch LEDs begin blinking after about
3 seconds. Continue holding down the Mode button. The LEDs stop blinking
after 7 more seconds, and then the switch reboots.

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If you want to do a full reset including clearing out any residual configs left from the previous owner, get hold of the right cable to hook into it, and follow these instructions.

USB Console Cable

Open a Telnet session using PuTTY

Clear the existing settings

It’s a bit convoluted and you can probably find other sources to go about it, but with a modicum of computer experience and a starting point of “what’s the worst that can happen?” it’s not difficult to get there.

Note that with this model of switch one doesn’t need a special console cable, but can also use a mini-USB - USB-A to hook up to a PC.

There it is. I recall some here having success with this method.

That’s interesting. When I got mine I did the reset with the button then got hold of the cable to do the PuTTY config deletes as mentioned above, and the files to delete were still present until manually deleting them.

Holding the mode button down doesn’t reset the configurations, it just reboots the switch. Two different things. My main 2960L-16PS I bought used was having all kinds of issues and they didn’t clear up until I went in and did a proper reset via Mac Terminal. Holding down the button got me nothing.