Cisco Router User Interface
185
Viewing and saving router configurations
Verifying routing configurations
And just as it was with the preceding chapters, the important fundamen-
tals that you'll be taught in this chapter are the critical building blocks that
you need to grasp going on to the other chapters in this book.
Cisco Router User Interface
T
he
Cisco Internetwork Operating System (IOS)
is the kernel of Cisco
routers and most switches. Cisco has created something called CiscoFusion,
which is supposed to make all Cisco devices run the same operating system.
But they don't, because Cisco has acquired devices that they haven't designed
and built themselves. Almost all Cisco routers run the same IOS, in contrast
to only about half of their switches.
In this section, I'll give you a look at the Cisco IOS and how to configure
a Cisco router step-by-step, using setup mode. In the next section, I'll show
you how to do this using the command-line interface (CLI).
Cisco Router IOS
The IOS was created to deliver network services and enable networked
applications. The Cisco IOS runs on most Cisco routers and on some Cisco
Catalyst switches, like the Catalyst 1900 switch (covered in Appendix B).
The Cisco router IOS software is used to complete the following on Cisco
hardware:
Carry network protocols and functions
Connect high-speed traffic between devices
Add security to control access and stop unauthorized network use
Provide scalability for ease of network growth and redundancy
Supply network reliability for connecting to network resources
You can access the Cisco IOS through the console port of a router, from
a modem into the Aux port, or even through Telnet. Access to the IOS com-
mand line is called an
EXEC session
.
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