Press Release
January 9, 2002
O'Reilly Releases "Cisco IOS in a Nutshell"--The Network Administrator's Guide to Cisco Commands
Sebastopol, CA--As ubiquitous as corn flakes on a midwestern breakfast
table, Cisco routers are everywhere that networks can be found. They
come in all sizes, from inexpensive units for homes and small offices
to equipment costing well over $100,000 and capable of routing at
gigabit speeds. Cisco is a fixture on today's networks, claiming
roughly seventy percent of the router market, and producing high-end
switches, hubs, and other network hardware. One unifying thread runs
through the product line--virtually all of Cisco's products run the
Internetwork Operating System, or IOS. As James Boney, author of "Cisco
IOS in a Nutshell" says (O'Reilly, US $34.95), this is both a great
advantage and a great disadvantage.
"On the one hand," Boney observes, "when you're familiar with one Cisco
router, you're reasonably familiar with them all. Someone using a small
ISDN router in a home office could look at a configuration file for a
high-end router at an ISP and not be lost." Boney adds that while that
person may not understand how to configure the more esoteric routing
protocols or high-speed network interfaces, he'd be looking at a
language that was recognizable all the same.
"On the other hand," Boney adds, "this uniformity means just about
everything has been crammed into IOS at one time or another." The
result is a massive operating system with an ungraceful command line
interface and command verbs that can mean completely different things
in different contexts. The volume of documentation available is
daunting; with more than 100,000 pages of information, finding what you
need to know is a challenge.
"That's why I wrote this book," Boney explains. "It is primarily a
quick reference to the commands that are most frequently needed to
configure Cisco routers for standard IP routing tasks. This is far from
a complete quick ref to all of IOS--such a quick ref would be well over
2000 pages long, and clearly too long to be useful. Above all, this is
a network administrator's book: it represents practical experience with
IP routing on Cisco routers and covers the commands that you're likely
to need."
Cisco IOS in a
Nutshell consolidates the most important commands and
features of IOS into a single volume. It begins with a brief,
example-oriented tutorial that shows how to accomplish common tasks.
The bulk of the book is a quick-reference guide to the commands most
commonly used in IP routing applications. Brief descriptions and lists
of options guide the network administrator through figuring out what
commands are needed to accomplish any task, from setting up a serial
interface to using applications such as packet filtering, address
translation, and traffic prioritization. Cisco IOS in a Nutshell may
not be the only book a system administrator will ever need on Cisco,
but it is sure to be an indispensable resource.
Online Resources:
Cisco IOS In a
Nutshell
By James Boney
January 2002
ISBN 1-56592-942-X, 592 pages, $34.95 (US), $52.95 (CAN)
order@oreilly.com
1-800-998-9938
About O'Reilly
O'Reilly Media spreads the knowledge of innovators through its books, online services, magazines, and conferences. Since 1978, O'Reilly Media has been a chronicler and catalyst of cutting-edge development, homing in on the technology trends that really matter and spurring their adoption by amplifying "faint signals" from the alpha geeks who are creating the future. An active participant in the technology community, the company has a long history of advocacy, meme-making, and evangelism.
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