Most people know the important Unix shell commands, but what about the Cisco IOS commands? If you do not know them, or if you only know the most basic commands, then this handbook is for you. This very practical reference book on configuring Cisco routers is appropriate for network administrators, network engineers and professionals, teachers, and even communications students.

With more than 600 pages, this tome should not be read from beginning to end. Instead, it’s a useful tool for everyday work on Cisco routers. As such, the authors--three certified Cisco experts in the networking field--address the most popular IOS features.

The book’s five parts consist of 14 chapters, and each chapter is divided into several sections. Each section details a specific feature and corresponding protocol, and begins with a quick reminder of the technical background that is necessary to understand the feature. After the reminder paragraph, a configuration paragraph shows the commands to type, in the right order, with information on all of the options for each command. When the feature is complex, the configuration paragraph is followed by an example paragraph that presents a real case, along with command logs, real addresses, and parameters, in order to better see how such a configuration looks in real life.

At the end of each chapter, a small bibliography section directs the reader to references for a more in-depth discussion of the covered features. At the end of the book, a special chapter is devoted to the widely used IOS access lists. Some of the 11 appendices may be very useful--for example, “Password Recovery” and “Configuration Register Settings.”

As a teacher of master’s-level students who are specializing in computer communications and networking, I found this book very handy for preparing my lab courses. The presentation of the material is very clear, which is important when working with a command line interface. The features covered are extensive, ranging from addressing, routing and packet processing, and quality of service (QoS) to multicast, mobility, telephony, and security. The book also includes many sections related to Internet protocol version 6 (IPv6), which is very useful for deploying test and research networks.

I definitely recommend this book to anyone who manages Cisco routers or wants to learn Cisco IOS.