Building VPNs as solid as Fort Knox

Internet Devices offering turnkey virtual private network package.

By Tim Greene
Network World Fusion, 3/9/98

Internet Devices, Inc. last week announced Fort Knox, a turnkey package that should make it easier for corporations to build and manage virtual private networks (VPN).

Fort Knox is a family of proprietary hardware and software VPN packages that in-cludes firewall and encryption software for enabling secure VPNs. Fort Knox includes an e-mail server, URL blocking, spam filtering and user name/password authentica-tion. The package also contains Web browser-based management software that lets users monitor and control the Fort Knox environment.

Fort Knox provides users with a single collection of features and services needed to set up a VPN that otherwise would have to be assembled and managed separately.

One Fort Knox box sits on the LAN side of routers linking remote sites to the Internet and corporate backbones. A second Fort Knox box at another corporate site is required to complete the secure VPN.

The Fort Knox family con-sists of three Intel Corp. Pentium-based models each equipped with a minimum of two 10M/100M bit/sec Ether-net ports.

The low-end Model 1000 supports a 512K bit/sec Internet connection. The mid-level Model 3000 and high-end Model 5000 add an additional Ethernet LAN port. The 3000 sup-ports T-1 speed Internet access links, and the 5000 supports up to four T-1 lines.

Turnkey packages such as Fort Knox should become more prevalent as Internet-based VPNs become more common, according to Michael Howard, an analyst with Infonetics Research, Inc., a market research firm in San Jose, Calif.

Similar packages include Bay Networks' NOC family and products under development by start-up Indus River, Inc.

Other vendors, including VPNet Technologies, Inc., Red Creek Communications, Inc. and TimeStep Corp., include in their products some of the functions supported by Fort Knox. But none has the complete set that Fort Knox has, Howard said.

Users who have deployed Fort Knox like what they see. Bill Linhard, network manager for Delta International Machinery Corp., in Pittsburgh, only wanted a firewall, but the integrated security and other VPN features attracted him to the package.

With Fort Knox deployed at Delta's Pittsburgh site and another at the company's office in Knoxville, Tenn., the company set up a secure data link between the two, something the company never had before.

The cost of the two Fort Knox devices fell within the range Delta would have had to pay to buy and install just a pair of firewalls, Linhard said. "We didn't want to limit ourselves to a simple firewall, especially when we're looking to other features in the future," he said.

The Fort Knox 1000 with firewall costs $1,995, the 3000 costs $4,995 and the 5000 costs $9,995.

VPN software costs $995 for the 3000 and 5000. The firms e-mail server costs $495, and the URL blocking service is available for $995. All are available now.

Internet Devices: (408) 541-1400.