ServGate scales security box

ServGate this week is announcing a multifunction security platform to which customers can add hardware and software as traffic and network security needs grow.

MILPITAS, CALIF. – ServGate this week is announcing a multifunction security platform to which customers can add hardware and software as traffic and network security needs grow.

Called EdgeForce Plus, the base model supports a 200M bit/sec firewall and 45M bit/sec Triple-DES encryption to create IP Security VPNs. With the purchase of a software key called Performance Module, the firewall speed can be pushed to 250M bit/sec and the VPN encryption to 90M bit/sec.

ServGate also sells a hardware module for the Professional Module, a device that includes a 20G-byte hard drive, Web caching and URL filtering, as well as local logging to keep track of what resources users access. EdgeForce Plus appliances with Professional Module can support a McAfee antivirus software add-on. The company says it plans to add more security functions, including intrusion detection.

The Rockford Public Schools in Rockford, Mich., placed an EdgeForce Plus between the Internet and the school network as a firewall, but also uses it to screen viruses and limit Internet access for defined groups of users, says Peter Young, network operations coordinator for the schools. He says having one device perform multiple functions limits the number of network devices he must learn. He considered NetGear firewalls, but opted for the multiple functionality of the ServGate box.

Young says he installed an early release of EdgeForce Plus at the start of the school year, and plans to test its VPN and Web-caching capabilities this summer.

The ServGate box comes with several bundles of features, including 100- and 250-user packages of VPN clients that let users make secure links over the Internet between PCs and EdgeForce devices in corporate networks. The boxes come with three Ethernet ports that connect to the Internet router, the LAN, and separate, secure LAN segments known as demilitarized zones that typically house Web and e-mail servers.

The base model of EdgeForce Plus costs $3,000. Performance Module costs $1,000 extra, and Professional Module costs $500 extra. Virus-scanning software costs $245 to $2,495 to support numbers of users ranging from 10 to unlimited.