🙁 The final nail in its coffin was, if you updated it past version 9.10 the FirePOWER module was disabled, (Regardless of the fact you had bought licences for it or not). If you wanted to do anything even vaguely ‘ firewall-ish’ with your firewall, the config would extend in size with a ratio like it was getting multiplied by the Fibonacci numbers.

the problem with that was, it was ‘ horrifically terrible in the extreme‘. Cisco tried to ‘Fix’ the switch problem by introducing the BVI interface with version 9.7. The 5506-X was, (to be honest), a massive let down, it shipped with 8 Ports on it, but those ports were independent, so you needed to buy a switch as well, and it didn’t have PoE. It replaced the earlier PIX 501 and the PIX506E (I do have both of these models also tucked away somewhere, I was just too lazy to dig them out). It had built in PoE, a 7 port switch, (you need one port for the WAN.) The only thing that ever let the 5505 down, was, the earlier versions didn’t have enough RAM to update past version 8.3.

I know of 5505s that I installed new over 15 years ago that are still chugging away. The 5505, was brilliant, I still see them everywhere, tucked in the bottom of comms cabinets, and balanced on top of other things in Data Centers. Left to Right: ASA 5505, ASA 5506-X, Firepower 1010 The Firepower 1010, will end up being the replacement for the ASA5506-X, which in turn was the replacements for the ASA5505 Then complained that their internet connection was then terrible, ‘ Why is my new firewall slower than the old one!’ So look at the throughput for these things, with inspection enabled before deciding to buy the cheapest one! A Brief History *Seriously, I’ve deployed a LOT of 5506-X (and 5508-X) firewalls, and then clients enabled every inspection, IDS/AMP/Web Filtering etc.

But like its predecessors it will probably get put in EVERYWHERE because it’s ‘cheap’, ( Note: for cheap, read possibly under-specced* and the wrong size!) The Firepower 1010 appliance is aimed at Small Office / Home Office, and possibly Small Remote Branch offices. So thanks to my employer for sending me one to take a look at. I’ve been trying to get my hands on one of these for a while.

Cisco asa 5505 rack mount kit