Cisco IOS Cookbook, 2nd Edition

What’s New in This Edition

The first important difference between the first and second editions of this book is visible right on the cover: we changed the title from Cisco Cookbook to Cisco IOS Cookbook. We had two main reasons for making this change. First, it’s more accurate. Cisco has several different product lines with completely different configuration interfaces. This book just covers the Cisco Internetwork Operating System (IOS), the software that runs on most of Cisco’s routers and switches. It doesn’t cover PIX or ASA firewall configuration or content switching or Cisco’s Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS), for example.

The second reason for the change is that somebody might one day want to write a Cisco firewall or content switching or IDS cookbook. In fact, several readers have written to us asking for such things, although having just completed the marathon process of updating this book, neither of us feels a burning desire to undertake such a project right away.

For the second edition, we had two main goals. The first was to update the information for the first edition so that it now reflects IOS Version 12.4. And our second goal was to add some of the new topics, like MPLS and IPv6, which have become more relevant since the first edition was published. Many of these ideas came from reader suggestions. However, Cisco rarely deletes features from its software when it creates a new version, so we have also retained most of the content from the first edition of this book. ...