The Cisco Catalyst 2960 Series Switches are standalone fixed-configuration switches offering Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet connectivity with LAN services for midmarket and branch office networks.
Cisco Catalyst 2960 Series Intelligent Ethernet switches are offered in two categories:
• Cisco Catalyst 2960 Series with LAN Base software
• Cisco Catalyst 2960 Series with LAN Lite software

Cisco Catalyst 2960 Series Switches with LAN Base software deliver intelligent services for commercial and midsize enterprise wiring closets and branch offices.
The LAN Base software supports enhanced integrated security, including Network Admission Control (NAC), advanced quality of service (QoS), availability, and scalable management to enable new converged applications.
Primary Benefits
• Connectivity: Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet connectivity in 8-port, 24-port, and 48-port configurations
• Power over Ethernet (PoE): 48 PoE ports, 24 full PoE ports and 24-ports (PoE supported on 8 ports) configurations
• Advanced Services: Layer 2 switching with intelligent Layer 2 through 4 services for the network edge such as voice, video, and wireless LAN
• Security: Network security enabled through a wide range of authentication methods, data encryption technologies, and NAC based on users, ports, and MAC addresses
• Advanced availability: 802.1S/W enables standards-based fault tolerance, load balancing, and rapid recovery; FlexLinks provides sub-100-millisecond convergence; Per VLAN Spanning Tree Plus (PVST+) increases available bandwidth by allowing traffic on redundant links
• QoS and Multicast: Industry-leading mechanisms for marking, classification, and scheduling to deliver superior network performance
• Management: Cisco Network Assistant simplifies configuration, upgrades, and troubleshooting; Express Setup is quick and easy using the webpage interface