Cisco PIX 506E

The Cisco PIX® 506E Security Appliance delivers enterprise-class security for remote office/branch office environments in a robust, purpose-built appliance. Ideal for securing Internet connections for remote/branch offices, the Cisco PIX 506E Security Appliance, which is part of the world-leading Cisco PIX Security Appliance Series, provides a wide range of rich integrated security capabilities and powerful remote management capabilities in a cost-effective, high-performance solution.

The Cisco PIX 506E Security Appliance delivers a multilayered defense for remote offices through rich security services including stateful inspection firewalling, protocol and application inspection, virtual private networking (VPN), in-line intrusion protection, and rich multimedia and voice security in a single device. The state-of-the-art Cisco Adaptive Security Algorithm (ASA) provides rich stateful inspection firewall services, tracking the state of all authorized network communications and preventing unauthorized network access.

Remote offices benefit from an additional layer of security via intelligent, 'application-aware' security services that examine packet streams at Layers 4-7, using inspection engines specialized for many of today's popular applications. Administrators can also easily create custom security policies for firewall traffic by using the flexible access control methods and the more than 100 predefined applications, services, and protocols that Cisco PIX Security Appliances provide.

Cisco PIX Security Appliances provide market-leading protection for a wide range of voice-over-IP (VoIP) and multimedia standards, allowing businesses to securely take advantage of the many benefits that converged data, voice, and video networks deliver. By combining VPN with the rich stateful inspection firewall services that Cisco PIX Security Appliances provide for these converged networking standards, businesses can securely extend voice and multimedia services to remote office environments for additional cost savings, improved productivity, and competitive advantage.

The Cisco PIX 506E provides several options for securing all network communications between mobile users, remote offices, and corporate networks over low-cost Internet connections. Solutions range from standards-based site-to-site VPN leveraging the Internet Key Exchange (IKE) and IP security (IPsec) VPN standards, to the innovative Easy VPN capabilities found in Cisco PIX Security Appliances and other Cisco security solutions—such as Cisco IOS® routers and Cisco VPN 3000 Series Concentrators. Easy VPN delivers a uniquely scalable, cost-effective, and easy-to-manage remote-access VPN architecture that eliminates the operational costs associated with maintaining remote-device configurations typically required by traditional VPN solutions. Cisco PIX Security Appliances encrypt data using 56-bit Data Encryption Standard (DES), 168-bit Triple DES (3DES), or up to 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) encryption.

The integrated in-line intrusion-protection capabilities of the Cisco PIX 506E Security Appliance can protect remote office networks from many popular forms of attacks, including Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks and malformed packet attacks. Using a wealth of advanced intrusion-protection features, including DNSGuard, FloodGuard, FragGuard, MailGuard, IPVerify and TCP intercept, in addition to looking for more than 55 different attack 'signatures,' Cisco PIX Security Appliances keep a vigilant watch for attacks, can optionally block them, and can notify administrators about them in real time.

The Cisco PIX 506E Security Appliance is a reliable, easy-to-maintain platform that provides a wide variety of methods for configuring, monitoring, and troubleshooting it. Management solutions range from centralized policy-management tools to integrated, Web-based management to support for remote monitoring protocols such as Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) and syslog.

Administrators can easily manage a large number of remote Cisco PIX Security Appliances using CiscoWorks VPN/Security Management Solution (VMS). This suite consists of numerous modules including Management Center for Firewalls, Auto Update Server Software, and Security Monitor. This powerful combination provides a highly scalable, next-generation, three-tier management solution that includes the following features:

* Comprehensive configuration and software image management
* Device hierarchy with 'Smart Rules'-based configuration inheritance
* Customizable administrative roles and access privileges
* Comprehensive enterprise change management and auditing
* 'Touchless' software image management for remote Cisco PIX Security Appliances
* Support for dynamically addressed appliances

Cisco PIX 506E Firewall - 1 x 10/100Base-TX LAN, 1 x 10/100Base-TX WAN, 1 x Management