A Cisco ASA Firewall is ideal for Broadband access connectivity to the Internet since it provides state of the art and solid network security protection. Especially for small business or home use, the ASA 5505 model is ideal for broadband ADSL access connectivity. Some ISPs provide Point to Point over Ethernet access, which is abbreviated […]
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The Microsoft Point to Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP) is used to create a Virtual Private Network (VPN) between a PPTP client and server. It is used for remote access from roaming users to connect back to their corporate network over the Internet. A PPTP client connects and authenticates to the PPTP server which assigns an […]
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This article describes the security levels concept as used in the Cisco ASA firewall appliance. The following information applies to both the older 5500 series and the newer 5500-X series of appliances. A Security Level is assigned to interfaces (either physical or logical sub-interfaces) and it is basically a number from 0 to 100 designating […]
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Cisco is continuously developing new versions of its Certification Exams and adds more and more practical requirements in the syllabus. For the CCNA, you can pass the exam without much practical experience, but for the Professional and Expert Level certifications (CCNP, CCIE), having hands on experience on Cisco equipment (or labs) is required if you […]
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If you have studied the OSI model with its 7 Layers that describe a communication or computer network system, you should know that the Ethernet standard lies in Layer 1 (Physical) and Layer 2 (Data-Link) of the OSI model. In this article we will focus on the physical (Layer 1) part of Ethernet, which mainly […]
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Networking is at the center of all information sharing and Internet activities, and most homes and businesses have some sort of networking technology used for internet access and for enabling the business communications and functions. However, many people struggle with some of the fundamental concepts involved in computer networking. Both Local-Area Networks, or LANs, and […]
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The scenario of configuring site-to-site VPN between two Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances is often used by companies that have more than one geographical location sharing the same resources, documents, servers, etc. The Cisco ASA is often used as VPN terminator, supporting a variety of VPN types and protocols. In this tutorial, we are going to […]
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In the previous post, we have discussed about isolating traffic using the private VLAN feature at Layer2 level. In this tutorial, we will discuss traffic isolation at Layer3 level using VRF Lite on Cisco routers. What is VRF Lite VRFs employ essentially the same concept as VLANs and Trunking, but at Layer 3. VRF (Virtual […]
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The internet and intranet are closely related terms. Some individuals may get these terms confused or use them interchangeably. While there are similarities, the internet and intranet are used for very different purposes. What Is an Internet Network? When you visit a website or use a mobile app that requires an internet connection, you are […]
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We have two types of IPSEC VPNs: Lan-to-Lan (or site-to-site) encrypted VPN and Remote Access VPN. The first one is extensively used to securely connect distant office networks and the second one for allowing remote users/teleworkers to access resources on a central site network. In this post we will describe briefly a Lan-to-Lan IPSEC VPN […]
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On this website I have written tens of articles about enterprise level firewalls (especially Cisco ASA) but many people are interested to learn about the best hardware firewalls for home or small business networks, so this is what I’ll focus in this article. Firewalls are designed to monitor incoming and outgoing traffic, helping to keep […]
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Denial of Service attacks (DoS) are very common these days. Especially Distributed DoS attacks (called also DDoS) can be executed quite easily by attackers who own large networks of BotNets. Thousands of malware-infected computers (which comprise the so called “BotNets”) are controlled by attackers and can be instructed to start attacks at any target. Usually […]
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Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) is quite a versatile device integrating application-aware firewall, SSL and IPsec VPN, intrusion prevention system (IPS), antivirus, antispam, antiphishing, and web filtering services. Cisco ASA also supports routing protocols such as Routing Information Protocol (RIP), Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP), and last but not least, Open Shortest Path First […]
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