Networks

Re: Primary benefits using Cisco ASA 5505 vs. 5510

CNW — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 19:15:56 GMT

Oh, I hope you can tell me how to make pfSense robust because ours is a disaster right now! I am desperately looking for affordable tech support on our Soekris box w/ pfSense and Samba, since the tech that made them for us has left the area. Anyone have any ideas?

Re: Primary benefits using Cisco ASA 5505 vs. 5510

Rog — Wed, 27 May 2009 04:34:07 GMT

Ditto on what dwelp wrote.

As far as robust, pfSense is quite solid. I bang the heck out of mine with lots and lots of traffic, and it has never needed a reboot.

But if you want an appliance for some different stability reason (simple appliances keep ppl from messing with them too much), then just go with the 5510, I'm guessing.

HTH

Re: Primary benefits using Cisco ASA 5505 vs. 5510

dwelp — Fri, 15 May 2009 15:10:21 GMT

I am also using the m0n0wall solution and have found it to be very robust and reliable. I wouldn't think the 5505 would offer anything better than what you currently are using. So I agree the 5510 would be an improvement over the m0n0wall.

I don't have time to check on the Cisco web site but you should be able to find at least list pricing there, also CDW PCMall or a local Cisco reseller should be able to get you the pricing for the additional clients. Remember the Tech Soup offering includes 5 years of SmartNet, so don't let the reseller sell that to you again.

Dave

Re: Primary benefits using Cisco ASA 5505 vs. 5510

lzacharia — Fri, 15 May 2009 12:30:09 GMT

Thanks Dave! Could you explain more about what you said below?

>>VPN remote connections It looks like the 5505 will support 2 remote connections (like a user connecting from their laptop from home or the cyber >>cafe) The 5510 will support many more users but you have to buy licenses for more than 2 users.

I was leaning towards the 5510. What concerns me would be the support for more than 2 remote connections. Do you happen to know what kind of pricing we are looking at for more than the 2? Our organization would need at least 10.

We are currently using a open source solution called "m0n0owall" and wanted to go to a more robust and reliable solution. From what I've read and seen on Cisco I'm really impressed with the 5500 series.

Being a non-profit I was looking to find out which would be a better value in the long run and I'm thinking 5510.

Does anyone have a 5510 in production? Would we be able to segment our 2 groups LAN and Wireless networks to go through one gateway? For some reason our current firewall doesn't have that ability. We have a LAN (10.0.0.0) and Wireless (10.0.1.0) and both seems to go out however for our Websense filtering we need to have our Wireless network actually run thru the 10.0.0.0) network. Running a tracerot. I've noticed it goes thru 10.0.1.0 gateway and then out to our ISP. I've had support tickets with both Websense and Cisco and they are leaning towards saying that my current firewall is not able to route it that way. .. I guess what I want to know is .. I'm assuming this Cisco device should be able to do this???

I appreciate your thoughts on the matter.

Re: Primary benefits using Cisco ASA 5505 vs. 5510

dwelp — Thu, 14 May 2009 15:24:55 GMT

The 5510 has more features than the 5505, If you think you might need these in the next 5 years I would get the larger box.

From the TS description page (hopefully translated for you)

VPN remote connections It looks like the 5505 will support 2 remote connections (like a user connecting from their laptop from home or the cyber cafe) The 5510 will support many more users but you have to buy licenses for more than 2 users.

The 5505 provides one fire wall, like to protect your inside network from the Internet. The 5510 will provide up to 5 virtual fire walls so you can segment individual networks inside your building from each other all with the one box. This could be used to provide a network for WiFi connection for the public that is isolated from your internal file servers and printers, you could add an additional network for a computer lab with different network restrictions, you could then also isolate your payroll server and payroll department PCs from the rest of the network, In addition to the fire wall protecting your networks from the Internet. Another advantage of the department segregation of this device (if it was properly set up and configured, as in any of these examples) if you were to get infected with a worm trying to propagate to all your computers, the 5510 could isolate the infection to a single department.

If you are going to have several remote offices connecting to your office via the Internet, the 5510 offers better support for the office to office communication. If it is only one or two remote offices the 5505 would be fine.

Hopefully this clears up a little for your decision process, you may want to consider finding a local Cisco reseller and contract with them for the design and installation of the product. They should be interested in the services even if they don't sell you the hardware, and if not find another reseller.

Dave

Primary benefits using Cisco ASA 5505 vs. 5510

lzacharia — Thu, 14 May 2009 14:45:44 GMT

Our organization needs help understanding the potential benefits to going to 5510 vs. 5505.