Check Point has expanded its small and midsize business offerings with two new multi-function security appliances that can be managed remotely in corporate settings with large numbers of small sites.

Called Safe@Office 500 and 500W, the devices add intrusion prevention and content filtering to earlier Safe@Office models. They also include a firewall/VPN and gateway anti-virus software.

The new devices are based on Check Point's enterprise-class VPN-1/Firewall-1 and Application Intelligence software, and it supports the company's Secure Remote desktop client, which can be downloaded from the device.

Check Point includes support for a separate hot spot security zone in the 500W appliance so it can be used in a retail setting, for example, where the storeowners want to offer customers Internet access but keep that traffic segregated from business traffic. The zone can be used for visitors at corporate sites, as well. The device supports WPA 2 wireless security.

The intrusion prevention software can scan for specific protocols to block such things as peer-to-peer and instant messaging traffic. The devices also support 10 VLANs.

Each device can be bought in a standard configuration or with a power-pack add-on. The power pack includes the secure hot spot wireless feature, VLAN and dynamic routing support and a high-availability port to allow tying two boxes together so if one fails the other takes over. The power pack also boosts the firewall/VPN throughput from 100M bit/sec and 20M bit/sec, respectively, to 150M bit/sec and 30M bit/sec. It also increases the number of simultaneous remote access VPN connections on base models from five to 25, the number of site-to-site connections from two to 15 and the number of managed VPN tunnels from 10 to 100.

Check Point is also introducing two update services for anti-virus/intrusion prevention signatures and content filtering.

Standard models of Safe@Office 500 range from $300 for five users to $1,000 for unlimited users, and range from $500 to $1,150 for the wireless version. Service packs cost $500 extra.

Anti-virus/intrusion prevention service costs $180 to $450 depending on the number of users, and content filtering costs $50 to $300, again depending on the number of users.

The two boxes and services are available in December.