If you put the IPS card in promiscuous mode then the ASA will just send copies of the traffic to the card. You can use policies to determine what traffic you want to redirect to the IPS card and what you don’t. Inline mode is the most secure because it places the IPS directly into the traffic flow. The IPS card can be deployed in either Inline or promiscuous mode. You can either use CLI, IME, or ASDM to configure and monitor the card.

The AIP SSC-5 does not have any physical ports on it so management is done through the ASA management ports. The 75Mbps performance with 4000 maximum connections per second should be able to accommodate just about any SOHO or branch office configuration, the sweet spot for the ASA5505. The AIP SSC-5 provides up to 75 Mbps of IPS or IDS throughput and supports both IPv4 and IPv6 networks. Adding full-blown IPS to the ASA5505 will substantially increase its ability to protect you. The Cisco ASA 5505 also provides significant expandability and investment protection through its modular design, similar to the rest of the Cisco ASA 5500 Series, offering both an external expansion slot and multiple USB ports that enable the addition of services in the future.Ever wondered what that blank slot in your ASA5505 is for? Well now you know, it’s for a modular IPS card. The Cisco ASA 5505 provides two Power over Ethernet (PoE) ports, enabling simplified deployment of Cisco IP phones with zero-touch secure voice over IP (VoIP) capabilities, and deployment of external wireless access points for extended network mobility. The Cisco ASA 5505 features a flexible 8-port 10/100 Fast Ethernet switch, whose ports can be dynamically grouped to create up to three separate VLANs for home, business, and Internet traffic for improved network segmentation and security. Using the integrated Web-based Cisco Adaptive Security Device Manager, the Cisco ASA 5505 can be rapidly deployed and easily managed, enabling businesses to minimize operations costs.

The Cisco ASA 5505 Adaptive Security Appliance is a next-generation, full-featured security appliance for small business, branch office, and enterprise teleworker environments that delivers high-performance firewall, SSL and IPsec VPN, and rich networking services in a modular, plug-and-play appliance.

Cisco asa 5505