asa 5505, 871 ISR comparison

brianjpisa · ‎01-29-2008

I deal with the pix 501 and asa 5505 all the time in small business. Recently I've been looking into the integrated service routers. How do the asa 5505 and 871 ISR compare. Is the packet inspection on the asa better than the ISR? I know the ISR is less expensive and you don't have to worry about the maximum user lisence which is an advantage. What would be the advantage of using the ISR to connect a small office to the internet (DSL or Cable) instead of an asa 5505 - and vice versa? Thanks in advanced.

Collin Clark · ‎01-29-2008

One of the things to consider is the conception of the client. Some people think a firewall is the most secure and no matter your argument, that's what they believe. Performance wise it depends on what the client will be doing. The ASA wins on VPN performance. Routing features the 871 wins (ie NBAR, Netflow, MCast, etc). I usually lean towards a router unless the client states they want the ASA or they are doing VPN.

kplunkett512 · ‎02-20-2008

I agree. We use both the 871 and the 5505 in deployments. If you're using the 5505 in a SOHO type environment (1-10 people), the 871 works excellent and doesn't have any performance issues.