1. A method for classifying network components of a packet-oriented network, comprising: determining, from a central management component, whether a network component is a management-capable network component; and if the network component is a management-capable network component, determining whether the network component supports layer 3 of the OSI reference model and determining whether data packets have already been forwarded in the past between the interfaces of the management-capable network component in order to classify the management-capable network component.