Build a Cisco PIX for 800 Australian Dollars

tallguy_wt writes: "Why fork out thousands of dollars to learn Cisco's PIX firewalling product when you can build your own for under 800 Australian Dollars, as shown in this article by Routermonkey."

Comments

It is illegal

[af_robot]

Why fork out thousands of dollars to learn Cisco's PIX firewalling product when you can build your own for under 800 Australian Dollars?

Because it is illegal and you will go to jail for stealing CISCO's intellectual property.

Re:It is illegal

[Pii]

If you have ever downloaded Cisco code from CCO, then you know that once you select the software that you want, you are presented with a page detailing the licensing agreement. At the bottom of the page, there are two hyperlinks.

The first hyperlink says "ACCEPT," and clicking through will present you with the download page for the software that you want.

The second hyperlink says "DECLINE," and clicking through will present send you back to the previous page.

The agreement states:

• Unless otherwise expressly provided in the documentation, Customer shall use the Software solely as embedded in, for execution on, or (where the applicable documentation permits installation on non-Cisco equipment) for communication with Cisco equipment owned or leased by Customer

That's pretty clear.

It's also pretty clear that because you need a CCO account to even get to the Software Download page, that you're having clicked on the "ACCEPT" link means that you are indeed accepting the terms of the license.

I don't care what you do, but if you're stealing, or failing to adhere to an agreement that you made, don't take offense when someone calls you a criminal because that is in fact what you are.

Erm... maintenance, support, etc

[youngerpants]

Well, one reason why I buy Cisco is for the maintenance agreements, the support packs and the like you know all the expensive stuff that gives me peace of mind. When that firewall blows, who's neck is on the line?

Oh and the fact that the entire Cisco site runs on MySQL should be enough reason to give them all your employers hard earnt money

Isn't it a bit moralely questionable...

[GodEater]

...posting links to a story which encourages you sourcing stuff from a warez site ?

Re:Isn't it a bit moralely questionable...

[timbck2]

It's just the slashdot mentality. I *can* get it for free, therefore it should be free. It's not a physical thing, it's only software, therefore it should be free.

Not only that, but I think it's overpriced, so it's OK to steal it.

whats up /.

[tanveer1979]

yea you could call it a troll, but i have to say this isnt really like slashdot.
Posting a warez link on front pafe
A couple of days back you posted a zip file for crashing windows
What the routermonkey guy is suggestiong will definately land you up in jail no joking here.
Currently slashdot is kind justyfying priracy and stealing in names of rights and all bull shit.
This is not done. Free software and open source DO NOT EQUATE with piracy.
Slashdot is the domain of geeks, technologists who are sensible people and do not want warez and cracks.
If I wanted warez and cracks i would go to some warez site and get plenty.

And in case you are not really convinced, lemme tell ya.. getting hold of flash for cisco is illegal. "Difficult to procure" thats what the article says. Well its plain illegal. So atleast post a warning about this so that some poor dumb ass dosent really try this and land up in jail.
And could you please aviod such things in future?

Re:whats up /.

[balloonhead]

OK, these arguments are tired. Consider this:

I want to drive a porsche. I could never afford one, they cost thousands of pounds more than my budget allows. But I've heard they drive really well, and I'd really like to learm how to drive one - just for handbrake turns and things that I wouldn't do in my regular car.

Well, I can 'download' one effectively for free, and use that instead. I get to have a porsche, I can learn to use one; It's not going to have any effect on the company because I wouldn't have bought one anyway, and as it was a 'copy'. Now I can also learn how to take it apart and put it back together again; hell, I could be a porsche enginerr! So I am really benefitting the company! This way they'll sell more cars, because there's more support from them.

Everyone wins.

There's no difference is there? Both theft; that's what capitalism's all about. Just because you can have it doesn't mean you deserve to. These arguments piss me off.

I realise you can't download a Porsche. So don't make a stupid remark about it. The point remains the same.

Soone or later someone's going to do this instead of buying that porsche, or even worse sell these (identical) copies for less money. Even if porsche doesn't lose any sales, they are no longer an exclusive product - this hurts them in a different way.

enough...

[sluggie]

Well, I think it's good to do some hardware hacking, like TiVo modding and whatnot.
Using opensource software instead of using their expensive counterparts is also a nice thing to do.

But, excuse me, what is this fucking thing about?

This puts the whole community into a bad light.
This whole "hack" or "tutorial" or whatever you might call it is nothing but two things:

Take some standart hardware and install stolen software. Wow.

Would you call this an intelligent hack? Maybe the folks over at something like scriptslashkiddiedot.org would...

Wanna do it cheap??

[dr.Flake]

Go to www.freesco.org or any other single floppy OSS based distro, get an old pc and two NIC's and go. $100 max.

The reason to use CISCO is ultimate durability, stability, service, configurability, speed etc etc.

hacking this thing together is gonna give none of the above!

In what setting am i gonna need a cheap ripoff of a professional router?
Those places that need the real thing usualy also deserve the real thing !

"Hardware firewall"

[amorsen]

One of the arguments I have heard for choosing PIX is that it is a "hardware firewall" and therefore presumably more reliable, faster, and less likely to break. Perhaps this will make more people realize that the PIX is just a piece of software running on a PC -- just like almost all other firewalls in the market.

Re:cheaper, better and even legal

[Saeger]

You know... one day in the not too distant future, all hardware (not just tech-related) will be open source too (you can stop laughing), and it'll be almost as cheap and easy to replicate these bits of matter as bits of information. I often wonder what all those titans of industry (like Cisco) will end up doing when they don't even own the means of manufacturing anymore... they'll probably just end up like RIAA/MPAA: writhing in prehistoric pain whilst bribing govt for artificial life extension law.

--

How stupid can you get?

[jlkinsel]

"Today your slashdot moderators have been replaced with Frys employees...let's see if anybody notices..." First "How to test a T1" and now this...

What jackass would want to waste time and money recreating a POS firewall like a PIX? When's the article coming showing me how to clone a watchguard?

I predict Cisco won't claim DMCA against this, they'll see it, fall out of their chair at how completely stupid some people are, and continue their business.

Pull the story

[balloonhead]

Having this story on the front page (or indeed, at all) is an insult to most of the people who read it.

For all the column inches devoted to how the DMCA/RIAA/whoever is immoral, you go and put a link to someone advocating theft. This isn't far from advertising warez... even if the server can handle the traffic, the slashdot effect still allows a lot of eyeballs to see that site.

I disagree with software piracy, and stealing music online; I occasionally do download MP3s, I won't deny it; just as I drank alcohol when I was under 18 (UK), but I would consider myself only a 'minor' user - these files are never on my HDD for too long (I think the record is about a week)

But this is qualitatively and quantatively very different from /. virtually advocating pirating software worth several thousand pounds. In the same way that my underage drinking (which almost everyone does) is very different from advertising and promoting underage drinking.

How can any movement to safeguard our rights be taken seriously with this sort of lunacy? Valenti et al will be rubbing their hands in glee. This is another victory for them - if one of the most popular advocates of free software is advertising piracy, then that reflects very badly on the community as a whole.

And yes, I do consider my MP3 use to be wrong - I'll buy these songs if they release the single but I don't want an album of pricey crap because there's one song ion it I like - I can't wait for services where a comprehensive list of songs can be bought at a reasonable pprice, individually...

The PIX is just a low end PC, but . .

[MrLinuxHead]

The last Cisco PIX I had to open to install a new NIC was a model 1500 IIRC, and it was just a low-end PC board (Intel BX) with a P166 and 32 or 64 Mb o Ram. And a PCMCIA card slot. This handled a T1 with about 1,000 users and had no downtime in over 5 years. The Cisco software was excellent.

There is nothing stopping anyone from downloading a image from Cisco's site if they so choose. Licencing is another matter. That would be against the law if I read the Cisco licence correctly.

This story does not link to a source for the files mentioned. That does not make this story OK. It is not OK that routermonkey has the filenames listed, as that makes it trivial to find using P2P networks.

That being said, you could just goto Cisco's web site and read up on their PIX products and read the docs to "learn how to configure it". But why, if the like Freesco, The LRP, and BSD are around. These will do anything the PIX can do and are quite simalar to the Cisco product. The reason the most businesses want a Cisco firewall is that the CFO/CIO don't want to get nailed by auditors for running a "freeware" firewall. They want a big name to cover their asses. The Freesco/BSD/IPtables combos will do just fine for your educational purposes.

Re:timothy

[drsoran]

Well, first yesterday they provided a direct link to a tool to DOS a Windows NT/2000/XP box, and today they're linking to an article on how to build a Cisco PIX and steal their software to run on it?? WTF is Slashdot becoming? If you are just downloading the PIX software you *are* stealing it. It's several thousand dollars.

Re:So?

[LWolenczak]

If comparing ipchains vs. pix, Pix wins no problems. But comparing iptables vs. pix, pix looses and runs away.

Iptables is much more kick ass then pix in my experence. Most of the time, people just buy it because of the brand name... Cisco PIX.