New IOS features

Question

Hi guys and girls,
I was wondering if there was a Cisco mailing list or some type of advertising shoot that Cisco used to advertise new features in IOS software? I have been reading through text books on the new exams in the past to keep up to date but thought that there must be a better way out there that I have simply missed.
Any help will be appreciated. Oh and you can also be the first person to respond to my posts on the forum :S. To be fair I fixed the other issues by myself but it’s always nice to hear from others.
Cheers
Mike

Answer 1

Hi Mike,
To be completely honest, I would welcome such mailing list or a concise information channel for new and changed IOS features as well. Unfortunately, so far, there are no such focused information sources to my best knowledge.
What you can always visit:
1) Each major IOS generation is documented along with the Release Notes which document the changes, newly added or removed features, solved and open caveats, etc. Following is the list of Release Notes for major IOS versions for routers:
12.4: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps6350/prod_release_notes_list.html
12.4T: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps6441/prod_release_notes_list.html
15.0M: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10591/prod_release_notes_list.html
15.1M: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10592/prod_release_notes_list.html
2) Also, major new features are described in standalone documents called the Feature Guides:
12.4: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps6350/products_feature_guides_list.html
12.4T: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps6441/products_feature_guides_list.html
15.0M: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10591/products_feature_guides_list.html
15.1M: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10592/products_feature_guides_list.html
3) For Catalyst switches, the Release Notes are are published more often, however, the IOSes for Catalyst switches are customized for each Catalyst platform and you should always go to the appropriate Catalyst switch product pages to visit the corresponding IOS documentation.
4) As the Catalyst switches have very nice Configuration Guides, they can also be used as sources of information about supported features, including learning about new features - although it may be difficult to know which exact feature has been added in a new version.
Anyone here willing to share his/her own ways of keeping in pace with new IOS features?
Best regards,
Peter