Will a Cisco PIX 501 Work for Me?

2025-04-17

Im about to delve into my first real Firewall. Due to suggestions from WebhostingTalk I think I will be trying a Cisco PIX 501. Can an experienced Cisco person help me verify that the PIX501 will suit my needs?

All Im trying to accomplish is to increase security on my network slightly. I am not doing rocket science or even credit card processing thus the level of firewall is not terribly important.
My network traffic is only 3 to 5 Megabits per second at the high point in the day
I will need this firewall to work for about 30 servers. This is my first real concern! Does the Cisco PIX 501 allow me to output to a switch, then have that switch hooked up to 30 different servers?
Along the same lines as the above I have multiple subnets from my ISP. Will the PIX 501 work for multiple subnets? For example I have: 111.111.111.100/24, 111.111.111.200/24, 111.111.222.1/24. I need these to all resolve properly and have each server picking up its designated IP Addresses. Will the Cisco PIX 501 work in this sort of a setup resolving and firewalling multiple subnets for me? This is my second real concern!

I think the answer is: You cant do more than 10 devices with the Cisco 501. If this is the case, is it maybe as simple as buying Part # PIX-501-SW-10-50 to add more devices that can be used with this Cisco Firewall?

Thanks for the help.