Shutting down PIX good idea?

Hi

Just a quick question....at work we always have our PIX 506e firewall
on.

I have a home lab that uses a PIX 506 and up until now I have generally
switched it off at night when not needed to save on power...I only use
it to practise on and, whilst it does handle NAT and DHCP, there maybe
the odd night when I'll not be accessing the internet at home so there
is no need to leave the PIX and ADSL modem switched on.

Does anyone have any experience with doing this to a switch regularly?
Are they designed to be left on for the majority of the time so almost
daily switching on/off may cause damage?

Thanks in advance.

Re: Shutting down PIX good idea?

In article <1157283387.333128.40850@m73g2000cwd.googlegroups.com>,
wrote:
>I have a home lab that uses a PIX 506 and up until now I have generally
>switched it off at night when not needed to save on power

>Does anyone have any experience with doing this to a switch regularly?
>Are they designed to be left on for the majority of the time so almost
>daily switching on/off may cause damage?

Not electrical damage, but mechanical damage is a possibility.
The PIX 501 in particular should not have its power supply disconnected
at the unit: the connection is just too fragile. The 506 connector
is -better- but there is still a risk of pushing the connector socket
into the unit. If you must turn it off, turn off the outlet it is
connected to.

Re: Shutting down PIX good idea?

On 3 Sep 2006, in the Usenet newsgroup comp.security.firewalls, in article
<1157283387.333128.40850@m73g2000cwd.googlegroups.com>,
dilan.weerasinghe@gmail.com wrote:

>I have a home lab that uses a PIX 506 and up until now I have generally
>switched it off at night when not needed to save on power...

Power
Autoswitching: 100V to 240V RMSCurrent: 0.7 - 0.4AFrequency: 50-60 Hz,
single phaseHeat dissipation PIX 506E chassis: 102.4 BTU/hr, full power
usage (30W)Heat dissipation PIX 506E plus power adapter: 204.6 BTU/hr,
full power usage (60 VA)

60 VA? Very roughly, the same as a 60 Watt light-bulb.

>Are they designed to be left on for the majority of the time

Yes

>so almost daily switching on/off may cause damage?

Yes

Leaving it on 24/7 exposes the device to any "strange" electrical power
glitches. If the power is clean - no problem. If the power is crappy,
then you increase the _chance_ for damage. Running the system all the
time also increases the exposure to those nasty crackers out on the
Internet.

Switching on/off causes temperature cycling - things tend to expand as
they warm up, contract as they cool down. This can cause mechanical
fatigue. When you turn _on_ the system, there is typically a surge of
power into the unit. Think of a dam totally blocking a stream. When the
dam is removed, there is a lot of movement of water. Once things calm
down, the flow of the stream is probably small in comparison. (You may
notice that incandescent light bulbs tend to fail when you turn them on,
not after they've been on for a few minutes. The starting surge, and the
temperature cycling [which is much worse in a bulb] is the cause.) The
wear and tear to a power switch - yes that occurs as well, but the
switches are _usually_ rated for at least tens of thousands of operations.
Think of the light switch on the light in the bath room. How often do
you use that switch, and how often do you replace it? For perspective,
10,000 cycles at two per day is 13.7 years.

Bottom line - as long as you aren't overheating the unit by keeping it
in a poorly ventilated location, there's no real benefit either way. The
60 Watts running all the time (43 KWH per month) _might_ be more important.

Old guy