About the Author

Richard A. Deal has 20 years of experience in the computing and networking industry including networking, training, systems administration, and programming. In addition to a B.S. in mathematics and computer science from Grove City College; Richard holds many certifications from Cisco. For the past eight years , Richard has operated his own company, The Deal Group Inc.

Besides teaching various Cisco certification courses, Richard has also published many books. Richard recently published Cisco Router Firewall Security with Cisco Press, which is on the Cisco CCIE Security reading list. Richard is also the author of the following books: CCNA Cisco Certified Network Associate Study Guide (Exam 640-801), Cisco PIX Firewalls , and CCNP BCMSN Exam Cram 2 (642-811).

Richard is actively writing Cisco certification self-preparation tests for Boson (http://www. boson .com) and has written many self-preparation tests for the CCSP certification. Richard currently lives with his wife, Natalya, and his daughter , Emily Alina, in Oviedo, FL, just outside of Orlando.

About the Technical Reviewers

Pete Davis has been working with computers and networks since he was able to walk. By age 15, he was one of the youngest professional network engineers and one of the first employees at an Internet service provider. Pete implemented and maintained the systems and networks behind New England's largest consumer Internet service provider, TIAC (The Internet Access Company). In 1997, Pete joined Shiva Corporation as product specialist. Since 1998, Pete has been with Altiga Networks, a VPN Concentrator manufacturer in Franklin, MA, that was acquired by Cisco Systems on March 29, 2000. As product line manager, Pete is responsible for driving new VPN- related products and features.

Stephen Marcinek , CCIE No. 7225, is a technical trainer for Boson Training, a Cisco Learning Partner. He develops course content and delivers numerous classes in Cisco Networking and Security, from Introductory to CCIE level. Stephen also consults for numerous large organizations. He holds a bachelor's degree from Rutgers University and is a member of Mensa.

Mark Newcomb , CCNP, CCDP, is a retired network security engineer. Mark has more than 20 years of experience in the networking industry, focusing on the financial and medical industries. Mark is a frequent contributor and reviewer for Cisco Press books.

Acknowledgments

A real special thanks goes out to the technical editors of this book: Pete Davis, Mark Newcomb, and especially Steve Marcinek. I have personally known Steve for quite some time and can always count on him as a coworker and friend.

A big thank you also goes out to the production team for this book. Raina Han, Brett Bartow, Sheri Cain, Mary Beth Ray, Jim Schachterle, Michelle Grandlin, Jill Batistick, and Rozi Harris have been incredibly professional and a pleasure to work with. I couldn't have asked for a finer team.

Icons Used in This Book

Command Syntax Conventions

The conventions used to present command syntax in this book are the same conventions used in the IOS Command Reference. The Command Reference describes these conventions as follows :

Boldface indicates commands and keywords that are entered literally as shown. In actual configuration examples and output (not general command syntax), boldface indicates commands that are input manually by the user (such as a show command).
Italics indicate arguments for which you supply actual values.
Vertical bars () separate alternative, mutually exclusive elements.
Square brackets [ ] indicate optional elements.
Braces { } indicate a required choice.
Braces within brackets [{ }] indicate a required choice within an optional element.