How to load PIX rules from a file?

In configuration mode, configure the tftp-server to indicate the correct interface, and the address of a tftp-server, and the name of the file you will want to load from. You can save those settings as part of the configuration.

Then, when you want to load in new rules, *adding* them to the existing configuration, go into configuration mode and give the command configure network This will command the PIX to ask to tftp the file from the host.

Note that you MUST be in configuration mode for this to work. If you are not in configuration mode, then the command will not be recognized. That can be confusing because there -is- a "configure" command that is recognized outside of configuration mode but that other "configure" command has different options.

(In other words if you are not in configure mode and you ask for "help" on the "configure" command then it will not mention the syntax that is used to load in commands.)

To answer your immediately previous question: if you want to incrementally add new commands to try them out, you do not need to remove all the existing configuration first. What you do is prepare a file that only has the commands to change what you have into what you want, and you tftp in that file of changes.

But if you do want to start from the beginning then you can use "clear configure". After that, re-configure the inside IP address, and reconfigure the tftp-server, and then you can use "configure network" to load in the complete new configuration.