Cisco Routers for the Desperate is a brief, meaty introduction to Cisco routers that will make a competent systems administrator comfortable with the Cisco environment, teach them how to troubleshoot problems, and take them through the basic tasks of router maintenance and integration into an existing network. This compact book is designed to be read once, and then left on top of the router until something breaks.

Cisco routers are the standard devices used to connect companies to the Internet. They are highly reliable and robust, and support anything from small connections to huge circuits used by telephone companies. Cisco Routers for the Desperate is a brief, meaty introduction to Cisco routers that will make a competent systems administrator comfortable with the Cisco environment, teach them how to troubleshoot problems, and take them through the basic tasks of router maintenance and integration into an existing network. When a system almost never breaks, the tech support people responsible for it do not have the opportunity to learn about it. When it does break, repairs can take a long time simply because the people responsible don't know what to do! This book is designed for the desperate support people who just need to get the darn thing working again -- and fast. This compact book is designed to be read once, and then left on top of the router until something breaks. It's for people who don't really want to know a huge amount about routers but who do want to provide reliable network services.