Cobra Pix 501 3des Bundle.(chassis Sw10u 3des)

Average customer rating: 5.0

A hardware firewall without peer

Cobra Pix 501 3des Bundle.(chassis Sw10u 3des)

Manufacturer: CISCO SYSTEMS - ENTERPRISE
Product Group: CE
Binding: Electronics
ASIN: B00006B6GD

Related Categories:

Networking & Online Communication

Networking & Online Communication

Network Security

Product Description

The Cisco PIX 501 Firewall delivers enterprise-class security for small offices and teleworkers in a reliable, Plug and Play security appliance. Ideal for securing high-speed "always on" broadband environments, the Cisco PIX 501 Firewall, which is part of the market-leading Cisco PIX Firewall Series, provides robust security capabilities, small office networking features and powerful remote management capabilities in a compact, all-in-one solution.The Cisco PIX 501 Firewall is a purpose-built security appliance that provides rich security services including stateful inspection firewalling, virtual private networking (VPN) and intrusion protection in a single device. Using the Cisco state-of-the-art Adaptive Security Algorithm (ASA) and PIX operating system, the PIX 501 ensures that all the users behind it are safe and secure from threats lurking on the Internet. Its powerful inspection firewall technology keeps track of the state of authorized users' network requests and prevents unauthorized network access. By leveraging the flexible access control capabilities of the PIX 501, administrators can also enforce customized policies on network traffic traversing through the firewall. The Cisco PIX 501 Firewall can also secure all network communications from remote offices to corporate networks across the Internet using its standards-based Internet Key Exchange (IKE)/IP security (IPsec) VPN capabilities. By encrypting data with 56-bit Data Encryption Standard (DES) or optional advanced 168-bit Triple DES (3DES) encryption, prying eyes cannot see your sensitive corporate data as it safely travels across the Internet. The integrated intrusion protection capabilities of the PIX 501 can protect your network from many popular forms of attacks. Looking for over 55 different attack "signatures", PIX keeps a vigilant watch for attacks and optionally blocks them or notifies you of them in real time.

Customer Reviews:

A hardware firewall without peer.......2002-07-25

The phrase 'Cisco powers the internet' is considerably more than just a marketing slogan. Quite literally this is the best firewall a home user can buy, without qualification. It contains the same software as others costing 5 figures, which protect the most prestigious assets one can imagine. It's hard to truly describe how much engineering talent & know-how one is getting for a song with the PIX 501.

Why do home users need something of this quality? Only you can answer that, but let me provide a few pointers. First off, the PIX 501 is not just reserved for people with seriously expensive computer setups. The real question is: Do you feel you have something of value to protect? Like perhaps years worth of creative artistry on perhaps just a single PC (which might have cost less than a grand!)? And do you need/want to stay on the internet for long periods of time? If any of these are true, this may very well be the product for you. And yes, I use this product with dial-up & another wireless router.

Physically the PIX 501 is just a bit larger than an external modem (although not quite as thick!). Cisco's customer support (both live & via the web) has been above average so far. The live TAC support reminded me of L.L. Bean, and the docs present on the web show a depth very few other tech sites can match (outside of corps like MSFT, IBM, etc).

Mine arrived without 3DES enabled, which made the web interface appear dead. The issue was detailed on their web site, and the TAC people dealt with it promptly and professionally. (If you buy one and PDM appears dead, before panicking just use show version to see if DES/3DES is enabled)

I'm not going to argue the software vs. hardware firewall issue. Personally I've been burned too many times by the popular software firewalls which literally don't support the high-end XP/win2k environment I use. This HW solution does (and so does ISA from MSFT).

This product is *very* deep, and could take some real effort to install in non-vanilla environments. Yet, I think most home users don't have complex computer setups! Even most win2K domain users don't usually dive too deeply into the feature bag MSDN offers. I bet most people could probably install this product right out of the box. You can always download the manuals first & check it out before buying (like I did). It took me about 10 hours of real work to install, and I don't have a vanilla environment.

Electronics:

Electronics

Electronics