Pix 501 Best Hardware Firewall for a Home user?

Slickwall · Post by **Slickwall** » Thu Jun 29, 2006 3:17 am

Title says it all. Do I need a router with this or will the built in switch allow internet access for both my desktop and Laptop. Will the Pix (or any good dedicated firewall) slow down my gaming performance?

Slickwall

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Thu Jun 29, 2006 7:19 am

Most newer home market broadband routers won't even slow down your internet connection enough to notice while gaming...even a 60 dollar one will barely add 1-2ms to your pings.

Now for many of todays higher speed packages from ISPs...over 10 megs, 15 megs...the older PIX501 will be a bottleneck for you...and slowdown overall downloading speeds.

ErikD · Post by **ErikD** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 10:52 am

Not all of us are lucky enough to have those speeds.

I am still at 5Mbps cable, and it works fine for me. PIX 501 doesn't slow things down any for me.

Honestly it is probably overkill for most home situations anyway. It has a lot of features that would mostly never see use from the average user, and wouldn't really be necessary. Now if I could only afford a 206E or 515

ErikD · Post by **ErikD** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 1:50 pm

YeOldeStonecat wrote:Most newer home market broadband routers won't even slow down your internet connection enough to notice while gaming...even a 60 dollar one will barely add 1-2ms to your pings.

Now for many of todays higher speed packages from ISPs...over 10 megs, 15 megs...the older PIX501 will be a bottleneck for you...and slowdown overall downloading speeds.

BTW, why do you say that the 501 would be a bottleneck? According to Cisco it is rated at 60Mbps throughput for non-VPN connections. So most web browsing/downloading should be fine even for faster connections.

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 2:03 pm

60? Hmm....I read 11 on a benchmark somewhere...non-VPN, can't remember where.... I think the CPU is only a 133MHz.

I'm replacing a 501 with a Linksys RV016 at a client in a week or two...I'll take the 501 home and do some benchmarks with Ixia.

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 3:55 pm

I was somewhat close...I'm at an eye care center right now....they had VPN troubles...prior consultant setup a PIX501 for them...stumbled across this Cisco document on it looking for something.
133MHz
16 megs
10 megs cleartext firewall throughput (the approximate speed of the WAN port)
3 megs VPN throughput at trip dez.

Page 2 on the below PDF link
http://www.cisco.com/application/pdf/en/us/guest/products/ps2030/c1616/ccmigration_09186a008017da02.pdf

ErikD · Post by **ErikD** » Sat Jul 22, 2006 12:58 pm

Yeah, but I think that is an older model.

If you check out the data sheet on the Cisco website, http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/vpndevc/ps2030/products_data_sheet09186a0080091b18.html, it lists 60Mbps for cleartext. I think they upgraded from a 10 Mbps port for eth 0 to a 10/100.

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Sun Jul 23, 2006 12:04 pm

Hmmm...guess they did. I replacing one at a clients with an RV016...maybe I'll benchmark it before tossing...if it's a 10/100 WAN model.

pixxies · Post by **pixxies** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 9:45 am

Hello everyone,

I’m late on this thread but I have a speed issue with my “new” pix 501. I’ve a VDSL 50/10 connection and I got only 10Mbps PIX throughput on one download thread per ftp. The max I got is ~18Mbps on 3-4 download thread…

The server I used to test provides me with 50Mbps without the pix 501…

Any suggestion is welcome.

Thx a lot for your help.

bilbus · Post by **bilbus** » Mon Jan 12, 2009 5:35 am

the 501 is nearly 10 years old now.

Was your wan port configured for 10mb? Sound like it was. Most cisco recommends that the wan port be set to 10 / full or 100 /full. Most likely it is still set to 10mb full / half

what you are describing is a clasic symptom of a duplex mismatch, or a hard coded 10mb port. If you switch it to 100 full, you should see your full speed.

Check that