Security appliances wrestle with blanket coverage

Worms, Trojan horses, security holes, floods, hacks, and attacks -- what's an SMB to do? Why, install an all-in-one security appliance, of course. Just make sure it lives up to its name

It’s essentially a small Linux server. That’s not a new approach, but ServGate was careful to leave open all critical avenues for upgrades. This allows you to not only easily upgrade the EdgeForce with free security updates, but to do so when you need it to handle additional users or a new feature set. It can expand with new software plus two additional CPUs, which would handle offloading CPU-intensive tasks such as encryption and deep packet inspection.

We also liked its approach to configuration. As with most of the firewalls, the setup for VPN Phase I was on one screen and VPN Phase II was on another, making for quick and logical VPN setups.

Once configured, the box passed all VPN tests with no trouble. ServGate even leverages some strengths of Linux to provide services, such as SSH (Secure Shell), for encrypted terminal sessions, module swapping, and user authentication for VPN connections, which can be handled either through the internal database or via a back-end LDAP or Radius server. Our test box came equipped with ServGate’s VPN Performance module, extending its rated VPN throughput to 90Mbps and making it the fastest VPN performer in our tests.

The EdgeForce relies on McAfee for AV capabilities, and it allows you to add it later as your needs dictate. This AV feature supports scanning all inbound and outbound e-mail messages, covering Webmail, POP3/SMTP, and IMAP clients. The McAfee engine performed without problems, catching all of our test viruses.

The outcome of our firewall tests was similar to those of the NetScreen and the Safe@Office. The EdgeForce carries an arsenal of specific defenses against all of the most popular attack methods, including configurable thresholds for SYN flood, ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) floods, and UDP (User Datagram Protocol) floods as well as support for IP source routing, Fraggle and Smurf attacks, address sweeps, port scans, and many more.

Configuration of advanced features is entirely modular, allowing you to set up the box to serve all of your current needs, leaving the door open for new configurations as needs change. The Professional Module, for example, adds a 20GB hard disk, which can be used to enable features such as Web caching, URL filtering, and local logging.

The box also has good support for QoS settings. Really more like CoS (class of service), they allow you to configure priorities and maximum allowable bandwidth for different types of services or application traffic. They can then be attached to a policy that will forward the packets between physical or virtual interfaces. It may not be traffic shaping, but it can keep certain activities, such as file downloads or streaming video, from eating the rest of your WAN.

At $7,995, the EdgeForce is by far the most expensive appliance we tested, but it is certainly one of the best performers and definitely the most upgradeable over time. Even though its advanced features require some specific network security knowledge to configure, the EdgeForce is an excellent choice for the SMB with such resources at hand.

SonicWall Pro 2040