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Introduction
T
his book is intended to help you continue on your exciting new path
toward obtaining your CCNP and CCIE certification. Before reading this
book, it is important to have at least read the Sybex
CCNA: Cisco Certified
Network Associate Study Guide, Second Edition.
You can take the CCNP
tests in any order, but you should have passed the CCNA exam before pur-
suing your CCNP. Many questions in the Routing exam are built upon the
CCNA material. However, we have done everything possible to make sure
that you can pass the Routing exam by reading this book and practicing with
Cisco routers.
The new Cisco certifications reach beyond the popular certifications,
such as the MCSE and CNE, to provide you with an indispensable factor
in understanding today's network--insight into the Cisco world of
internetworking.
Cisco--A Brief History
A lot of readers may already be familiar with Cisco and what it does. How-
ever, those of you who are new to the field just coming in fresh from your
MCSE, or maybe even with 10 or more years in the field but wishing to brush
up on the new technology, may appreciate a little background on Cisco.
In the early 1980s, a married couple who worked in different computer
departments at Stanford University started up cisco Systems (notice the small
c).
Their names are Len and Sandy Bosack. They were having trouble getting
their individual systems to communicate (like many married people), so in
their living room they created a gateway server to make it easier for their dis-
parate computers in two different departments to communicate using the IP
protocol.
In 1984, Cisco Systems was founded with a small commercial gateway
server product that changed networking forever. Some people think the
name was intended to be San Francisco Systems, but the paper got ripped on
the way to the incorporation lawyers--who knows? But in 1992, the com-
pany name was changed to Cisco Systems, Inc.
The first product it marketed was called the Advanced Gateway Server
(AGS). Then came the Mid-Range Gateway Server (MGS), the Compact
Gateway Server (CGS), the Integrated Gateway Server (IGS), and the AGS+.
Cisco calls these "the old alphabet soup products."
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