PIX and ASA Product Information

In Part V, I'll discuss the use of Cisco PIX and ASA security appliances to initiate and terminate VPN sessions. PIXs and ASAs are very flexible and can be used for site-to-site (LAN-to-LAN or L2L) sessions, VPN gateways, and remote access clients. I'll cover topics on how to configure the PIX security appliances using the new 7.0 Finesse Operating System (FOS) and its predecessor, 6.x (the ASA only supports version 7.0).

In this chapter, however, I'll introduce you to the Cisco PIX and ASA security appliance solutions, focusing on VPN deployment scenarios and their VPN capabilities. I'll also discuss some of the advantages that Cisco PIXs and ASAs have over other Cisco products when being used for VPN solutions.