Cisco s PIX firewall is one of the industry s best-selling firewalls, providing customers with high levels of security, performance, and reliability. PIX, which stands for Packet Internet Exchange, was developed by Network Translation, Inc., in 1994 and purchased by Cisco in October 1995.The PIX firewall is a network appliance that does not use a general operating system like UNIX or Windows; therefore, inherent weaknesses in these operating systems will not degrade the firewall s overall security.The PIX utilizes the Adaptive Security Algorithm (ASA) to analyze every inbound packet, ensures that the network you are protecting is secure, and allows only legitimate traffic to pass through it. Some other features include Network or Port Address Translation (NAT or PAT), URL filtering, content filtering, IPSec VPN tunneling, and intrusion detection.

In 2005 Cisco released a new product to its firewall security product portfolio known as the Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA, not to be confused with the Adaptive Security Algorithm).The ASA is built on the same basic foundation as the Cisco PIX firewall, including running the same basic software (known as the PIXOS). However, unlike the PIX, which is designed as a purpose-driven firewall, the ASA is designed as a multifunction security device by incorporating not only the same basic PIX firewall functionality but advanced application inspection capabilities through integrated intrusion prevention system functionality as well as integrated flexible VPN connectivity. In a manner of speaking, the Cisco ASA combines the functionality of the PIX firewall, the IPS 4200...