Who Should Read This Book

This book is intended to help individuals support a Cisco network, not achieve Cisco certification. The following professionals will find the book useful:

• Network administrators

• Network engineers

• Network consultants

• Network managers

• NOC engineers

• Cisco Network Academy students who want to learn real-world issues and not just attain certification

Networking professionals invest time and money to support their network. This book saves you money by focusing on freeware tools. So why should you administer a network using freeware? Because like every other department, IT departments have an allocated budget, and you want to efficiently use your funds for other important things, such as training, certifications, and new hardware. Additionally, you do not need budgeting approval from the Purchasing or Accounting department or your supervisor.

This book saves you time by choosing the most suitable tools for each function and for you. Furthermore, the discussion includes configuration and troubleshooting steps for each tool. The book also includes relevant sample configurations for each tool.