This FAQ is edited by John Hawkinson, <jhawk@panix.com>.

Administrivia:

Please contribute answers to the questions in the Todo section! If
your answer is somewhat complicated, posting would probably be best
(to comp.dcom.sys.cisco). Otherwise, e-mail it to cisco-faq@panix.com.
Please note that a LOT of these questions have been hanging around for
some time, and if knowledgable people could take the time to answer a
few of them, that'd help.

This draft FAQ is in RFC1153 digest format, so you can follow each
question with your newsreader. I suppose that question-numbers should
be moved to the From: field. Note that Date: fields represent
last-modification times for the questions.

Since this FAQ was first developed, cisco has written up a lot of
useful information on their web site, http://www.cisco.com.  If you
can't find what you're looking for here, please check there, too.

Table of Contents
=================

1.      How can I contact cisco?
2.      What is this newsgroup?
3.      What does ``cisco'' stand for?
4.      How do I save the configuration of a cisco?
5.      Where can I get ancillary software for my cisco?
6.      Is there a World-Wide-Web (www) information source?
7.      How can I get my cisco to talk to a third party router over 
8.      How can I get my cisco to talk to a 3rd-party router over Frame Relay?
9.      How can I use debugging?
10.     How can I use NTP (Network Time Protocol) with my cisco?
11.     Sample cisco NTP Configurations
12.     How do I avoid the annoying DNS lookup if I have misspelled a command?
13.     Tracing bad routing information
14.     How to use access lists
15.     The cisco boot process
16.     Where can I get cisco hardware?
17.     Where can I get IETF documents (RFCs, STDs, etc.)?
18.     Future features in cisco software
19.     How do cisco routers rate performance-wise?
20.     How are packets switched?
21.     How does one interpret buffer statistics?
22.     How should I restrict access to my router?
23.     What can I do about source routing?
24.     Is there a block of private IP addresses I can use?
25.     Is DHCP supported?
26.     Where can I get cisco documentation?
27.     What's the latest software for the CSC/3?
28.     What IP routing protocol should I use?
29.     How do I interpret the output of ``show version''?
30.     What is the maximum number of Frame Relay PVCs?
31.     How much memory is necessary to telnet to a cisco router?
32.     Where can I purchase flash RAM?
33.     When are static routes redistributed?
34.     When is the next hop of a route considered ``reachable''?
35.     How do name and phone number of ``dialer map'' interfere?
36.     What's the purpose of the network command?
37.     What is VLSM? 
38.     What are some methods for conserving IP addresses for serial lines?
39.     Why do some ip addresses get rejected?
40.     How do 4xxx serial numbers correspond to models?
41.     Where can I find more info on TACACS+
99.     Acknowledgements.

todo:
=====

*  What is SNMP and how can I use it? What software is available and how do
   I use cisco enterprise MIBs? MIBs on ftpeng.cisco.com and CIO.cisco.com
*  Pointers to other net resources, like comp.protocols.tcp-ip, RFCs,
   the firewalls mailing list, etc (bgpd?[or is it cidrd now? :-)]).
*  Hints about confusing and not-well documented things like xtacacs...
*  Comments on interoperability issues WRT other vendors.
*  What's SMARTnet, why should I subscribe, how much does it cost,
   and what do I get?
*  What should I name my router, my interfaces, etc.?
*  Should we adjust the buffer parameters on the routers?  What should
   be the indicator before tunning the buffer parameters?  How should
   one fine tune the buffer parapeters?
*  What is CIDR and why do I care (or a more general acronym decoder) ?
*  How do I configure my cisco to use variable-length subnetting ?
*  Is there a block of private network numbers I can use
   within my organization only?  When should I use them?
   How do I access them from outside?
*  What do I do if I have to partition a network number?
*  Questions and answers about access lists
   access-list reference list (lots of questions on that)
*  I forgot to mention that routing DECnet over X.25 is a problem.
*  Where PD network applications for SLIP/PPP are.
*  What is HSRP and how does it work?  When is it available (10.0)
   (Hot Standby Routing Protocol)
*  Should I run 10.0, 10.2, 10.3, 11.1, or what?
*  What's the difference between IBGP and EBGP? Why should I run BGP?

Actual content.
===============