| 1.2. About this Manual | ||
|---|---|---|
 | Chapter 1. Introduction |  |
| 1.2. About this Manual | ||
|---|---|---|
| | Chapter 1. Introduction | |
Every major FB2500 software release is accompanied by a release-specific version of this manual. This manual documents software version V1.38.000 - please refer to Section 4.3 to find out more about software releases, and to see how to identify which software version your FB2500 is currently running.
If your FB2500 is running a different version of system software, then please consult the version of this manual that documents that specific version, as there may be significant differences between the software versions. Also bear in mind that if you are not reading the latest version of the manual (and using the latest software release), references in this manual to external resources, such as the FireBrick website, may be out of date.
You can find the latest revision of a manual for a specific software version on the FB2500 software downloads website. This includes the revision history for all software releases.
This manual is intended to guide FB2500 owners in configuring their units for their specific applications. We try to make no significant assumption about the reader's knowledge of FireBrick products, but as might be expected given the target market for the products, it is assumed the reader has a reasonable working knowledge of common IP and Ethernet networking concepts. So, whether you've used FireBrick products for years, or have purchased one for the very first time, and whether you're a novice or a network guru, this Manual sets out to be an easy to read, definitive guide to FireBrick product configuration for all FireBrick customers.
There are a number of useful technical details included in the apendices. These are intended to be a reference guild for key features.
At FireBrick, we appreciate that different people learn in different ways - some like to dive in, hands-on, working with examples and tweaking them until they work the way they want, referring to documentation as required. Other people prefer to build their knowledge up from first principles, and gain a thorough understanding of what they're working with. Most people we suspect fall somewhere between these two learning styles.
This Manual aims to be highly usable regardless of your learning style - material is presented in an order that starts with fundamental concepts, and builds to more complex operation of your FireBrick. At all stages we hope to provide a well-written description of how to configure each aspect of the FireBrick, and - where necessary - provide enough insight into the FireBrick's internal operation that you understand why the configuration achieves what it does.
Various typefaces and presentation styles are used in this document as follows :-
monospaced_font
/* this is an example program listing*/
printf("Hello World!\n");
This is an example of some text that would
appear on screen.
Note that for documentation purposes additional
line-breaks may be present that would not be in the on-screen text
This is an example note.
The significance is identified by the heading text and can be one of : Tip - general hints and tips, for example to point out a useful feature related to the current discussion ; Note - a specific, but not critical, point relating to the surrounding text ; Caution - a potentially critical point that you should pay attention to, failure to do so may result in loss of data, security issues, loss of network connectivity etc.
If you'd like to make any comments on this Manual, point out errors, make suggestions for improvement or provide any other feedback, we would be
pleased to hear from you via e-mail at : docs@firebrick.co.uk.
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| Chapter 1. Introduction |  | 1.3. Additional Resources |