Organization

As the name suggests, Cisco Cookbook is organized as a series of recipes. Each recipe begins with a problem statement that describes a common situation that you might face. After each problem statement is a brief solution that shows a sample router configuration or script that you can use to resolve that particular problem. A discussion section then describes the solution, how it works, and when you should or should not use it.

We have tried to construct the recipes so that you should be able to turn directly to the one that addresses your specific problem and find a useful solution without needing to read the entire book. If the solution includes terms or concepts that you are not familiar with, the chapter introductions should help bridge the gap. Many recipes refer to other recipes or chapters that discuss related topics. We have also included a variety of references to other sources in case you need more background information on a particular subject.

The chapters are organized by the feature or protocol discussed. If you are looking for information on a particular feature such as NAT, NTP, or SNMP, you can turn to that chapter and find a variety of related recipes. Most chapters list basic problems first, and any unusual or complicated situations last. But there are some exceptions to this, where we have opted instead to group related recipes together.