We're going to let my Network World colleague Tim Greene take over Buzzblog for a moment to fill us in on a geeky YouTube clip that's starting to cause a stir:
Check Point Software's recently introduced UTM-1 security appliance is more than a way to protect networks from Internet threats - it can also be a home media center.
As this YouTube video - "Checkpoint UTM-1 to Media center in my living room" - demonstrates, PC-based UTM-1 hardware can be modified to support the playing of videos - in this case an episode of "Family Guy."
Posted by someone named Sasha Eilinyaov, the video shows a pair of white-gloved hands taking the case off a UTM-1, adding a video card and a new hard drive, attaching a keyboard, loading Windows XP and playing "Family Guy" on an attached monitor. The clip has been viewed 3,445 times as of this writing, a total that has more than doubled since yesterday.
While Eilinyaov belittles the box's hard drive and memory, the device did test well in a Network World Clear Choice Test earlier this year. It was found suitable for providing protection to small businesses connected to the Internet by connections smaller than 45M bps.
UTM-1 supports a firewall, VPN, intrusion prevention and anti-spyware for $7,500. These features can be supplemented with a Web server, application firewall, SSL VPN network extension, QoS controls and URL filtering.
Check Point announced UTM-1 at the RSA Conference in San Francisco earlier this year, a few months after then-Network World columnist Richard Stiennon lambasted the company's CEO Gil Shwed and urged him to start making security appliances.
-- Tim Greene
All I want to know is whether I can watch The Final Four on this thing.
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