Bill the other,

- Glad we have a name now
Technically, like any other software you need a current Cisco CCO account to download the IOS from Cisco so you "buy" software from Cisco by having a Smartnet agreement. Sad thing is on most older routers you can not get a Smartnet agreement.
We have also discussed here in the past that Cisco should have a way for people/students who are working on labs (not production routers)to get the different IOS's as well as other Cisco software
FOR LAB USE . Hey Cisco
MICROSOFT DOES !!!!!
You also might want to Google "IOS Hunter", it is a software that ......
As I said in another post - as you buy more routers, if you do, try and get them with different IOS!!
DO NOT POST YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS HERE if you look at older posts you will cleverly find the email address of some of the other posters here that are not posted as an email address but text, some of us exchange email on the outside world. It would also not be impossible to find some of us with Google for outside discussions!
Hope this helps!
E.A. Broda
CCNA, CCDA, CCAI, Network +