In Chapter 6 we learned about router interfaces, hardware, memory and the IOS. In this chapter, it’s finally time to get down to the initial configuration of a Cisco router. Although you aren’t really expected to be familiar with router configuration issues for the CCDA exam, you should still understand the majority of the concepts covered in this chapter. On the CCNA exam, you will not only need to remember commands and their purpose, but will also need to be able to issue them in questions where you will be working from a simulated router command line environment.
The topics that we’ll cover in this chapter include:
- The router boot process
- Using the System Configuration Dialog to configure a router
- Understanding the command-line environment and prompts
- Setting router passwords
- Configuring router banners
- Configuring router interfaces
- Configuring host names and name resolution
- Using telnet to access and configure routers
- Backing up and restoring the Cisco IOS and configuration files
- Using the Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) to gain information about neighboring devices
At the end of the chapter you will use many of the commands learned to walk through the configuration of a router from start to finish, using a set of hypothetical requirements. More advanced topics, including the configuration of routing, access lists, WAN protocols, and IOS troubleshooting will all be looked at in upcoming chapters.
