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I have acquired a used Pix firewall. A PIX 506 to use as a firewall for my small home office, the netgear wi-fi was really not cutting it.

I'd like to get a pointer on where to start with it, like how do I reset it to factory specs, log in, etc.

I'm an OS X, Linux, UNIX person and don't know IOS or Windows.

John Gardeniers
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user1172468
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    Cisco has documents on how to do factory resets: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/vpndevc/ps2030/products_password_recovery09186a008009478b.shtml – colealtdelete Dec 24 '12 at 17:04
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    Be very careful with that device. The PIX line is end-of-life/end-of-support/end-of-patch with known vulnerabilities with public exploits. Particularly the 501/506 since they only support up to 6.3. You would be better served with a 2000 era PC running pfSense or something similar. – Scott Pack Dec 25 '12 at 18:20
  • @ScottPack -- I actually also have a PIX 515, is that any better? – user1172468 Dec 25 '12 at 18:39
  • @user1172468 The 515e is the bottom grade, but most modern class, of PIXes. It'll take the newest PIXOS but is still abandoned technology. So better, but still a bit scary. That device does use standard desktop RAM, I can't remember which exactly, so it is easy to upgrade out of support. – Scott Pack Dec 25 '12 at 19:46
  • @ScottPack, mmm I like pfSense but I really want a low power consumption system ... so I thought the PIXes would fit the bill ... so a 515e is scary ? – user1172468 Dec 25 '12 at 20:14
  • The entire PIX line is dead now, the 515e just supports a newer revision than the 506. Don't forget, the 515e bottom vents, so don't put it on a shelf. – Scott Pack Dec 25 '12 at 22:33

2 Answers2

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Running the startup wizard if available in the OS you're running might be your best bet to start.

Keith Stokes
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  • Hi Keith, I have access to Linux and OS X -- is there a start up wizard for these two OSes? – user1172468 Dec 24 '12 at 23:24
  • If you have the serial cable to match you can connect it. 9600 N/8/1 is the default connection. Boot it to see what OS you are running. Then you can run the factory reset procedure detailed in the other posts. At that point you may have a startup wizard available when you reboot. – Keith Stokes Dec 24 '12 at 23:48
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Password reset can be found on the Cisco site - http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/vpndevc/ps2030/products_password_recovery09186a008009478b.shtml

There is a quick start on the Cisco website - http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/security/pix/pix62/quick/guide/506quick.html

The web panel is Java based (If it is installed on your PIX) so will run on Windows, Linux, MAC.

Epaphus
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