Do not buy the Cisco NAC

Short story: It sucks.  I have been struggling for over two weeks to just get ONE location up and running.  Every thing I’ve done is being done according to how the Cisco documentation says it needs to be done.  I’m having to get a Cisco representative on the phone at least every other day in order to fix a problem with the setup.

Long story: Coming soon.

16.Aug.08 Networking, Security

« Redo
Shut it down »

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3 Responses to “Do not buy the Cisco NAC”

  1. Rollie | August 17th, 2008 at 8:09 am

    Perhaps you need to read their propogranda again…

    Cisco NAC Appliance is the recommended deployment solution for most customers. It is an appliance-based product that provides

    * Rapid deployment
    * Self-contained endpoint security posture assessment
    * Policy management
    * Integration with identity, remediation, and other services

    …see, it’s got to be you. :)

    I’m seriously starting to question the wisdom of using Cisco at all these days in most situations. Not that you had a choice, I’d imagine.

    Unless it’s something enormous where 99.9999% uptime is absolutely a requirement, Linux (or BSD if you are cooler than me) boxes can do at least as well if not better. The main difference is that the Cisco hardware will almost never fail (barring external factors), hence the nearly perfect uptime.

    In the last year, I’ve come to two conclusions about Linux. First, Linux is still not quite ready for enterprise in most cases; specific servers and workstations sure but using end-to-end Linux is usually not going to work because of a few missing pieces and especially thanks to recent improvements to Windows Server. Second, on the other hand, Linux is absolutely ready to run your infrastructure from end-to-end; routers, gateways, VPN, etc. can thrive on purely Linux-based solutions and with more capabilities than anything else.

    Again, not saying you made a bad choice or had any choice at all. Just felt like rattling that off. :)

  2. wyckedone | August 18th, 2008 at 6:53 pm

    Not that you had a choice, I’d imagine.
    Oh, I had a choice.

    A. Accept the Cisco NAC or
    B. My boss picks someone else to be in charge of the NAC

    I wasn’t about to give up controlling the NAC so I accepted the inevitable. :)

  3. Kevin | September 12th, 2008 at 6:53 am

    Cisco seems to have gone the way of symantec we want to control everything cause your not competent. I’m still not sold on the NAC thing anyway.

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