Customer Reviews

Cisco ASA5510-SEC-BUN-K9 ASA 5510 Security Plus Appliance

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I purchased one of these for my company as a router/firewall, and to provide Site to Site VPN to another 5510 at our hosting provider.

The ASDM GUI is very easy to get working (plug into the management port and browse to
[...], but to really configure this router, I would recommend being comfortable with IOS and the command prompt, and really really proficient with networking concepts.

In my opinion, if the following looks too hard, you should seek another router:
hostname(config)#access-list OUTSIDE extended permit tcp any host 172.20.1.10 eq www
hostname(config)#access-group OUTSIDE in interface outside

If you are a command line god, and you really understand networks, or if you have one who can teach you, then this is an outstanding router. You can do a lot of config from the GUI, but you still need to understand the concepts, and you will likely find yourself checking the running config after making a change in the GUI just so you can do it from the command line next time.

In short, if you are a Cisco guy or gal, this particular router is great, and inexpensive. It seems to scale well, too, but I don't have hard numbers on that yet.

IMPORTANT READ: It's important I share my experience after purchasing two of these firewalls from Amazon.

The devices came with software version 7.3, in order to upgrade the device's software you must have an active Cisco smartNET support subscription, as I knew.

Well, after purchasing my units and requesting a quote for the smartNET subscriptions, I was DENIED because there was already an existing subscription under Amazon's name. In order for me to get support on the devices a request had to come directly from Amazon to Cisco to terminate the contract. You'd think this would be clock-work, but not here.

I received repeated responses from Amazon first saying no such contract even existed under their name. Then they told me I didn't even buy the product from them and they couldn't give me a contact to who it came from. Then they sent me another response saying sorry that I did buy it from them, but could not give me any further information.

I finally got the contract terminated by raising hell and getting a 3-way call between both companies. Some blame can also go to Cisco customer service, but they were just following policy since the "brand new in-box" item already had an existing support contract.

NOTE: I LOVE the hardware. 5 stars. These devices have operated great, but I would honestly pay a couple hundred more per unit from another retailer simply to avoid the THREE WEEK headache of getting the existing support contracts terminated.

RECOMMENDATION: Request the serial #s of the unit you will be shipped if purchasing, and contact Cisco directly to verify there are no existing support contracts on the device before purchasing.

As a networking expert for over 15 years experience and 10 years cisco network products. Ordered this because it's a product from cisco and I always trusted them for best value for the business. However Cisco this time failed me big time. Initial configuration was quick and everything working, saved the configuration and reboot to test it again. then weird thing happened, the same configuration didnt' work. First time I thought it's the configuration problem and I tried another time. The second time happened exaclty the same as first time. working for initial setup and not working for reboot startup. Even I backup the configuation and restore the configuration, no luck. Don't waste money and ernengy unless you are consultant charging per hour.