[rescue] Cisco PIX 506 questions

[Chad McAuley]

We've got a PIX 506 (non-E) here at work that's been sitting unused
for a long time that I'm considering rescuing for home use, but I've
got a couple questions.

1) It's currently running PIX OS 5.3 (I forget which subrelease), and
I'd like to upgrade the firmware to something newer.  I know I at
least 6.2, as that's when PPPoE support was added (among other
features along the way that might be nice to have) and I'd like to
have the option of having the PIX handle the PPPoE connection instead
of the router.  Obviously, 6.3(5) would be the logical choice, since
that's the last version that supports the 506.

What options do I have for getting upgraded firmware?  I'm assuming
it's the usual SmartNet/CCO deal like any other piece of Cisco
equipment, but given that the PIX 506 was EOLed in 2002 and even the
hardware support expired in May of this year would it even be possible
to get a smartnet contract for this?  Would I have any luck just
contacting Cisco's tech support and explaining what I want to do and
see if they'd be willing to help me out?  Or is this a situation where
I'd need to find someone with a CCO login that'd be willing to break
the rules?

2) Assuming I can get a firmware upgrade for this one way or another,
anything I should keep in mind using it in place of a consumer
router/firewall?  Obviously the initial configuration will be
different from what I'm used to with consumer stuff, but from what I
can tell it should have all the functionality I need/want and then
some.  I'm more wondering if there's any unresolved glitches/bugs in
the firmware I should be aware of or anything like that.