Fortinet, NetContinuum update appliances

Using custom-built ASICs to do packet inspection is a growing theme among firewall manufacturers.

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Fortinet and NetContinuum on Monday released new versions of their multifunction appliances that employ processors to inspect traffic and apply security rules.

Fortinet introduced the FortiGate 800 and updated the operating system that runs across its family of anti-virus firewalls. Meanwhile, NetContinuum introduced Version 4.0 of its NC-1000 Web Security Gateway, incorporating a stateful inspection network firewall along with its existing application firewall.

Rick Kagan, vice president of marketing for Fortinet, explained that Fortinet's FortiASIC content processor technology inspects the entire payload of a data packet by taking it apart and repackaging it before passing the packet along. No other vendor does this yet, Kagan said, but many -- including NetScreen and Network Associates -- have discussed plans to use processors to speed the inspection of packets for anti-virus purposes.

The new FortiGate 800 features four 10/100/1000 ports for enterprises that are considering Gigabit speeds but aren't fully ready to embrace the faster, and still more costly, technology, Kagan said.

Version 2.8 of the FortiOS operating system has been enhanced to include support for IPv6, enhanced e-mail scanning features, Web content filtering, and added support for other protocols.

The FortiGate 800 will be available in January and Version 2.8 of FortiOS will become available in the first quarter of 2004.

NetContinuum also announced enhancements to its firewall product. Wes Wasson, vice president of marketing at NetContinuum, explained the company has added an ICSA-certified network firewall to its NC-1000 Web Security Gateway application firewall. This functionality complements other functions the company has folded into its appliance. Additionally, the device does SSL acceleration, TCP/IP offloading, load balancing, and caching -- functions that occur in the DMZ, or the network sitting between two networks, Wasson explained.

"Anything in the datacenter is our domain," said Wesson. He added that customers he's spoken to are excited that a firewall has been added as it means they can redeploy some of their existing firewalls to other parts of the network.

Version 4.0 will be generally available in January; it is a free software upgrade to existing customers.