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For quite some time now I have been annoyed at Cisco for not releasing a 64 bit edition of their IPSec VPN client.  As far as I am concerned, their plan has been to force everyone over to the AnyConnect VPN client (SSL VPN) which does support 64 bit clients (i.e. Windows Vista 64 bit).

Oh, and by-the-way the AnyConnect Premium client costs $1,250 (MSRP) for a 10 concurrent user license on a 5510, where as the IPSEC client is FREE for unlimited users.

On a recent trip to Costco I was amazed at what percentage of the systems now being sold were coming with 64bit Windows Vista.  There are becoming more-and-more home users that can’t VPN in anymore with the IPSEC client.

While I am still unhappy with Cisco for artificially forcing people over to AnyConnect client, there is some amount of relief in sight to this issue.

Cisco just announced this week at RSA some new features that will be included in the ASA 8.2 code.  One of which is a new AnyConnect license level “AnyConnect Essentials” which according to my sources will be “Almost Free” (you can decide what that means for yourself).  This license will provide basic VPN  access, but not include the clientless web portal stuff or Cisco Secure Desktop (basically the stuff that I would rather not have to support anyway).

The other cool feature I am looking forward to is a new Botnet detection capability.  Basically the ASA will periodically download signature files from Cisco that tell it what traffic to look for.  If the ASA observes internal machines connecting out to known Botnet controllers it will be able to report on them.  There will be a yearly fee to enable this, so I am curious to see what they charge.

No word yet on availability dates for 8.2 or official pricing.  You can find more details on what is in 8.2 here.

-Eric