Persistent VPN between PIX 501 and ASA 5505

[cody.marshall]

I am a networking newbie with 2 small retail stores. I would like to create a persistent VPN between the stores. I already have a PIX 501 firewall, and I am looking at getting an ASA 5505. Would I have any problems creating a persistent VPN between these two firewalls?

[i-kendall]

No problems whatsoever :-)

There are loads of examples for the config on the Cisco website, and basically these boxes can run exactly the same software, so the config on each is virtually the same. Main difference is the ASA defines the interfaces in a different way. Even if you have different versions of software, say 6.3 on the PIX and 7.2 on the ASA they will still work fine for the VPN, just the configs will be a lot more different. Hope this helps to remove any worries you had?

[Michael Odom]

The only problem you may run into is the licensing on the 5505, but I believe the base license has 10 IPSec connections, so that should be fine.

You should be able to configure either a standard Lan-to-Lan IPSec VPN, or an EZVPN IPSec connection. I use the EZVPN extensively for some of my small remote sites because it works well with dynamic IP's, doesn't have a problem if the ISP uses NAT, and I find them easier to deploy.