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ASA vs IOS vs Sonicwall

1K views 6 replies 3 participants last post by  Troy_Jollimore 
#1 ·
Hi, all-

I'm getting ready to install a T1 line in my residence. Ultimately I will probably share the line with a few neighbors.

They're offering me a managed Adtran router for $75 a month, but I would rather purchase my own router so I can increase my knowledge base.

We use Cisco ASA's at work, which has me leaning in that direction.

How feasible is it for me to set an ASA up so it is secure right off the bat? I know there's a pretty steep learning curve, which is fine, but I don't want to leave myself vulnerable while I'm coming up to speed.

Or would I be better off with an IOS, or perhaps a Sonicwall?

My experience to date is with consumer grade routers, but I have over 20 years of IT experience.

Buckaroo
 
#2 ·
Welcome to TSF!

Getting a T1 installed, imho, is not a good idea at all. And forget sharing it with neighbors. It is only 1.5mbps. My home service is 18.6 times faster than that. Don't forget a T1 is equal to 2.6 56K modems in speed. I can't even imagine doing web surfing using dialup anymore.

Whatever internet facing device you choose it should not be the one you are training on. So in your case get a consumer grade router and put that in. Then on the back end learn to configure ASA or Sonicwall. You can have multiple routers in series.
 
#7 ·
Dialup for pure web SURFING is actually not too bad, especially if you're close to one of their main telecom switching stations. Where you hit a wall is with larger downloads, which make up quite a few websites these days.

Are you still going ahead with the T1? As for the ASA, I was in your shoes when I started this job supporting a PIX501. They nice thing is that it's so granular, it's very easy to figure out exactly what it's doing. Also, they come configured out of the box to let NOTHING through. So it's up to you to allow things in/out. Unfortunately, you can still make mistakes. Other devices, like Juniper/SonicWall/WatchGuard/etc. are a bit more user-friendly with their GUIs, but can be a bit confusing at times.
 
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