Cisco IOS in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition

Chapter 1. Getting Started

In the first edition of this book, I may have dated myself a bit by starting this chapter off with the following paragraph:

The modern world is networked in a way that could barely be imagined a few decades ago. Today, the Internet reaches into virtually every business and almost every home. Our children and even our grandparents speak of dot-coms, email, and web sites. The Internet is now part of our culture.

Almost four years have passed since then, which does not seem like much time at all. But in the networking and computer fields, that’s a very long time indeed. Our children and grandparents now speak of dot-bombs, MP3s, broadband, voice over IP, instant messaging, and outsourcing. Even the once-killer app email has been surpassed by the gratification of instant messaging. Things have certainly changed, which leaves us to wonder what the next few years will bring.

No matter what happens, Cisco is likely to continue its dominance of the networking world. Even that little router sitting on your cable or DSL connection at home could very well be a Cisco device. Routers and switches are the glue that holds the Internet together. And Cisco is the most prominent router manufacturer, holding the largest share of the market. Their routers come in all shapes and sizes, from inexpensive units for homes and small offices to equipment that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars, used by very large ISPs and telcos. Almost all of their devices—from the smallest to ...