The world-leading Cisco PIX® Security Appliance Series provides robust, enterprise-class, integrated network 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 cost-effective, easy-to-deploy solutions. These integrated technologies create a strong multi-layered defense for todays ever changing network environments. Ranging from compact, "plug-and-play" desktop firewalls for small and home offices to modular, carrier-class gigabit firewalls for the most demanding enterprise and service-provider environments, Cisco PIX Security Appliances provide robust security, performance, and reliability for network environments of all sizes.

Built upon a hardened, purpose-built operating system designed for delivering rich security services, Cisco PIX Security Appliances provide the highest levels of security and have earned many industry accolades including Common Criteria Evaluation Assurance Level (EAL) 4 status, as well as ICSA Labs Firewall and IPsec certification. Cisco PIX Security Appliances provide a wide range of security and networking services including VLAN (802.1q tag) support, OSPF dynamic routing, Network Address Translation (NAT), Port Address Translation (PAT), content filtering (Java/ActiveX), URL filtering, AAA (RADIUS/TACACS+) integration, support for leading X.509 PKI solutions, DHCP client/server/relay, PPPoE support and much more.

Cisco PIX Security Appliances also provide advanced security services for multimedia and voice standards including H.323 Version 4, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), Cisco Skinny Client Control Protocol (SCCP), Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP), and Media Gateway Control Protocol (MGCP)-allowing businesses to securely take advantage of the many benefits that converged data, voice, and video networks deliver.

Businesses can securely extend their networks across low-cost Internet connections to mobile users, business partners and remote offices worldwide using the full-featured VPN capabilities provided by Cisco PIX Security Appliances. 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 IOSR 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 support a wide range of remote access VPN clients including Cisco software VPN clients (available on many platforms including Microsoft Windows, Linux, Solaris and Mac OS X), Cisco hardware VPN clients (such as the PIX 501/506E, VPN 3002 or Cisco 800/1700 Series Routers), as well as PPTP and L2TP clients found within Microsoft Windows operating systems. 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. Many Cisco PIX Security Appliance models support modular upgrades, have integrated hardware VPN acceleration capabilities, delivering highly scalable, high performance VPN services.

Administrators can choose from a wide variety of solutions for remotely configuring, monitoring and troubleshooting Cisco PIX Security Appliances. These solutions range from centralized, policy-based management tools to integrated, Web-based management (PIX Device Manager) to support for remote-monitoring protocols such as Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) and syslog. Cisco PIX Security Appliances also include robust Auto Update capabilities, a set of revolutionary secure remote-management services that ensure firewall configurations and software images are kept up to date. Administrators can also manage Cisco PIX Security Appliances using a convenient command-line interface (CLI) through a variety of methods including Telnet, Secure Shell (SSH) or out-of-band via a console port.