Insider view on finding stuff fast on www.cisco.com

It can be frustrating at times when trying to find what you’re looking for on Cisco’s cisco.com website. It’s on the website they say. Sure but where!!!
To help you become more efficient in navigating the juggernaut of Cisco.com I’ve compiled some of my favorite tips and pages. Some of these are hidden gems, others are time tested favorites. If you have some of your own to recommend please share.

• Using the go sites. Did you know that you can find things by typing www.cisco.com/go/ followed by whatever it is your interested in. For example,
  http://www.cisco.com/go/asa or go/vpn or go/security, etc etc.




• Cisco’s NetPro forum site is a good place to find answers to questions from experts and other Cisco users. You’ll have to register but check it out here: http://www.cisco.com/go/netpro




• Cisco’s beta search page is much improved. I like it’s ability to filter results by all sorts of criteria listed on the left. Also, did you know that the search engine understands most of the typical Google search terms. My favorite is the minus sign which means not. For example typing asa vpn -7.x searchs for asa vpn sites that don’t have 7.x in their name. This allows you to filter out lots of stuff you don’t care about. Check out the beta search here http://tools.cisco.com/search/JSP/search-results.get?strQueryText=Search%20




• The newly redone Cisco Security Center is full of good info and links.
  http://tools.cisco.com/security/center/home.x




• Want some free online product training. Get ‘em here!
  http://www.cisco.com/go/elearning




• When you need to know if, or what, version of IOS/CatOS code or Cisco hardware supports a certain feature I use the new feature navigator. You can even compare two versions.
  http://tools.cisco.com/ITDIT/CFN/jsp/index.jsp




• You can create your own customized tech support portal with the My tech Support page. It allows you to put in your most used links, has a bug watcher with personalized bug groups, netpro forum postings track, a open service request tracker, and more. It just makes life simpler. Check it out
  http://www.cisco.com/go/mytechsupport




• This list wouldn’t be complete without the config tool and the pricing tool. Both priceless, old favorites. The config tool allows you to create a bill of material list that is complete in every way. It even has a very good compatibility checker so you are less likely to create a bill of material that is missing things or uses incompatible parts. The config tool has a configuration guidance feature that I recommend you enable if your new to the tool. The pricing tool is just that, a tool to quickly obtain list pricing on products and part numbers.
  Config tool is here: https://tools.cisco.com/qtc/config/html/configureHomeGuest.html
  Pricing tool is here: https://tools.cisco.com/qtc/pricing/MainServlet?Request=ShowCurrentPriceSrch




• Finding product docs is usually straight forward. I usually just use the search engine. But here is another, prettier way, to find docs. http://www.cisco.com/web/psa/products/tsd_products_support_configure.html




• Need to find out what version of code is most stable and what known bugs it has. Use the bug toolkit. It even lets you filter on things like severity level and resolved status. Check it out at http://www.cisco.com/go/bugs




• Want to know the best way to design a solution. Check out the design zone. It has a bunch of Cisco validated and tested designs for just about everything.
  http://www.cisco.com/go/designzone

Well that’s my list of the best. I’m sure I overlooked more than a couple. What are your favorite tips for searching Cisco.com?