how to distinguish genuine cisco products to imitation

[barnabas11]

hi people? I want to buy a cisco switch from a reseller. how do I know if it's original just by looking at it?

[Charles Hill]

Hey barnabas11,

Look for the serial number and go to

https://cway.cisco.com/sncheck/

and enter the serial number.  This will give you the product ID and if it's covered under warranty(contract # and expiration date of warranty). 

If you go to a Cisco partner, you should not have any problems.  At least I would hope not. 

[John_in_NZ]

This is useful material on fake modules:

http://www.andovercg.com/services/cisco-counterfeit-wic-1dsu-t1.shtml

[Charles Hill]

Good article!  I had not ran into this before. 

Learn something new everyday. 

(+5)

[Pawan Sharma]

Best way to avoid any counterfeit product is to request support contract along with it or just ask for the product serial number in advance to buy a support contract for the same, Any Cisco partner should be able to tell you the status of product by serial number.

I always ask for product serial numbers in advance and buy from my trusted cisco partners only.