does 5505 come w/ pw, cables, license

Excellent choice! Yes, they both come with everything you need. Only additional thing you might consider is Smartnet for it. That gives you full access to Cisco tech support for any config issues and a hardware warranty should it ever fail.

I don't understand, you mean Cisco doesn't give a standard one year warranty on their hardware and to get this I have to pay the minimum $76 fee for a warranty to get a replacement?

It might depend upon the exact model of ASA, but when I last looked, ASA warantees were generally 90 days. Also, smartnet is (usually) hardware and software support (including incident resolution as well as software upgrades).

That box has a 1 year warranty on hardware. Other cisco gear has an IT industry standard 90-day warranty, or limited original purchaser lifetime warranty. They are all different for the various lines, make sure to read it to make sure what you would get.

You don't get software upgrades without maintenance though. (again, fairly standard in the IT gear world).

Boxes aimed at consumers tend to get stronger support options than boxes aimed more for IT types..

So, Amazon has a 1yr ext. for smartnet. Can this be renewed at the end of 1 yr so that I can always keep the latest firmware updates, or are we talking about managing software?

My goal is to keep the latest firmware and do the configuring by the CLI since I'm also studying for my CCNA.

Would you recommend I not get the smartnet for that or is it still a recommened thing to get?

Thanks all for the replies.

Yes, you can keep renewing smartnet at the end of each year so that you can keep the box on hardware and software maintenance. With smartnet at all levels, it is advanced hardware replace, so you don't have to send it back, wait for them to fix it, and send it back to you, you just get it sent on the schedule for whatever response time you buy.

For the software, having a current smartnet up to date on your CCO account will let you keep download software updates so you can upgrade the box as long as it will go. Since the ASA5505 is fairly new, that should be awhile, since they just retired the PIXs.

Sure, although CCNA covers mostly routers and not so much firewalls from what I remember of it. The ASA CLI syntax gets closer to IOS, but its not IOS. If you go further on the security tracks though, you'd definately need hands on firewall using both the CLI and ADSM.

Its up to you. If you want to get software upgrades, then having it definately helps you out. At least its only $75/year, other vendors charge more for their entry level devices.

to OP,

not sure why you would want to buy a 5505 as it is a CAT OS based switch

If you are studying for Cisco certification, I would think that you would want to acquire a suitable IOS-based switch

The ASA5505 is Cisco's entry level firewall appliance, roughly equivilent to the PIX 501.

ahhh 5505 not 5000; really should have had my coffee first ;-))

I thought the same.

There was a Cat 5505. Weird for cisco to re-use the numbers. Very confusing.

I was just about to suggest that the cost of electricity for a cat 5505 may make it an expensive toy when something made me look it up.

Years ago I had the opportunity to take home an unwanted Apollo workstation - seemed a fine idea until I noticed that it needed about 3kw and since it took half an hour to boot turning it on when it was wanted was not really much of an option.