* SonicWall appliances offer LAN or Wi-Fi access point option
SonicWall is introducing three small-office VPN appliances based on a single hardware platform, the TZ 170 appliance introduced last year.
All three boxes support either a basic or advanced version of the company’s SonicOS operating system and include a five-port Ethernet switch, a WAN port, and an option port that can be configured as a second LAN port or as a port for Wi-Fi access points.
To this basic platform, SonicWall is adding a dial back-up port to make modem calls when the main broadband connection fails. This model is called TZ 170 SP.
Another version called TZ 170 Wireless adds a Wi-Fi access point that supports the 802.11b and g standards and will support the newer and more secure 802.11i standard. So SOHO computers and appliances with wireless cards can network through the VPN without wiring them into the VPN box.
The third model, called TZ 170 SP Wireless includes both the access point and the dial back-up port.
These devices all have firewalls and can support other security functions including virus screening, intrusion detection and content filtering. They can also be managed from SonicWall’s Global Management System.
These offerings are a step up from the company’s other small office appliances, the SOHO TZW, Tele3 SP and Tele3 SPi, in that they have better throughput and support additional applications.
The TZ 170 family will be of more interest to businesses that want to deploy a large numbers of these devices and want to turn on additional security beyond firewall and VPN.
Two of the new models, TZ 170 Wireless ($895 for 25 users) and TZ 170 SP ($695 for 10 users) are available now. The third, TZ 170 SP Wireless ($1,295 for 10 users) is scheduled to ship in August.
