Cisco VPN Client vs. Firewalls

This document discusses interaction of the Cisco VPN firewall, and its compatabilty with several commercial personal firewalls.

The Cisco VPN client contains a firewall. This is a very simple firewall that allows outbound network traffic and does not allow inbound network traffic. It is turned on and off from the Options pull-down menu on the main panel of the application. By default it is turned off.

IMPORTANT: Regardless of whether you use the Cisco VPN Client firewall, the VPN application itself interacts badly with many personal software firewalls, including the Windows XP built-in firewall. For that reason you MUST turn off any personal firewall software that the Cisco VPN Client does not explicitly interact properly with. The personal firewalls that the Cisco VPN Client supports are:

Version 4

  • Cisco Integrated Firewall
  • Cisco Intrusion Prevention Security Agent
  • ZoneAlarmPro 2.6.3.57 and higher
  • ZoneAlarm 2.6.3.57 and higher
  • ZoneLabs Integrity 1.0 and higher
  • BlackIce Agent and BlackIce Defender 2.5 and higher
  • Sygate Personal Firewall and Sygate Personal Firewall Pro, Version 5.0, Build 1175 and higher

Version 3.51

  • Cisco Integrated Firewall (CIC)
  • ZoneAlarmPro 2.6.3.57
  • ZoneAlarm 2.6.3.57
  • Zone Integrity
  • BlackIce Agent and BlackIce Defender 2.5

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