The Cisco PIX 501 Security Appliance delivers enterprise-class security for small offices and teleworkers in a reliable, plug-and-play purpose-built appliance. Ideal for securing high-speed "always on" broadband environments, the Cisco PIX 501 Security Appliance, which is part of the world-leading Cisco PIX Security Appliance Series, provides robust integrated security capabilities, small office networking features, and powerful remote management capabilities in a compact, all-in-one solution. The Cisco PIX 501 Security Appliance delivers a multilayered defense for small offices through rich security services including stateful inspection firewalling, protocol and application inspection, virtual private networking (VPN), in-line intrusion protection, and rich multimedia and voice security in a single device. The state-of-the-art Cisco Adaptive Security Algorithm (ASA) provides rich stateful inspection firewall services, tracking the state of all authorized network communications and preventing unauthorized network access. Small offices benefit from an additional layer of security via intelligent, "application-aware" security services that examine packet streams at Layers 4-7, using inspection engines specialized for many of today's popular applications. Administrators can also easily create custom security policies for firewall traffic by using the flexible access control methods and the more than 100 predefined applications, services, and protocols that Cisco PIX Security Appliances provide. Cisco PIX Security Appliances provide market-leading protection for a wide range of voice-over-IP (VoIP) and multimedia standards, allowing businesses to securely take advantage of the many benefits that converged data, voice, and video networks deliver. By combining VPN with the rich stateful inspection firewall services that Cisco PIX Security Appliances provide for these converged networking standards, businesses can securely extend voice and multimedia services to home office and small office environments for additional cost savings, improved productivity, and competitive advantage.The Cisco PIX 501 Security Appliance provides several options for securing all network communications between mobile users, small offices, and corporate networks over low-cost Internet connections. Solutions range from standards-based site-to-site VPN leveraging the Internet Key Exchange (IKE) and IP security (IPsec) VPN standards, to the innovative Easy VPN capabilities found in Cisco PIX Security Appliances and other Cisco security solutions - such as Cisco IOS routers and Cisco VPN 3000 Series Concentrators. Easy VPN delivers a uniquely scalable, cost-effective, and easy-to-manage remote-access VPN architecture that eliminates the operational costs associated with maintaining remote-device configurations typically required by traditional VPN solutions. Cisco PIX Security Appliances encrypt data using 56-bit Data Encryption Standard (DES), 168-bit Triple DES (3DES), or up to 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) encryption. The integrated in-line intrusion-protection capabilities of the Cisco PIX 501 Security Appliance can protect small office networks from many popular forms of attacks, including Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks and malformed packet attacks. Using a wealth of advanced intrusion-protection features, including DNSGuard, FloodGuard, FragGuard, MailGuard, IPVerify and TCP intercept, in addition to looking for more than 55 different attack "signatures, " Cisco PIX Security Appliances keep a vigilant watch for attacks, can optionally block them, and can notify administrators about them in real time.By packing all the same security features found in the other Cisco PIX Security Appliances, the Cisco PIX 501 Security Appliance provides the rich, consistent protection that all broadband users look for in an easy-to-use and easy-to-deploy solution. The Cisco PIX 501 Security Appliance provides a convenient way for multiple computers to share a single broadband connection via its integrated, high-performance four-port 10/100-Mbps switch. Furthermore, Cisco PIX Security Appliances provide Network Address Translation (NAT) and Port Address Translation (PAT) features to hide the actual network addresses of devices on your network. Users can also enjoy plug-and-play networking by taking advantage of the built-in Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server within PIX, which automatically assigns their computers network addresses when they are powered on. The Cisco PIX 501 Security Appliance provides all the features necessary to seamlessly integrate into most broadband networking environments. The Cisco PIX 501 Security Appliance is a reliable, easy-to-maintain platform that provides a wide variety of methods for configuring, monitoring, and troubleshooting. Management solutions range from centralized, policy-based management tools to integrated, Web-based management to support for remote monitoring protocols such as Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) and syslog. Administrators can easily manage large numbers of remote Cisco PIX Security Appliances using CiscoWorks VPN/Security Management Solution (VMS).