Astaro's Security Linux 5.1 takes the open source Linux software and hardens it, but also adds commercial software for a complete security package. It comes with six components: firewall, VPN, anti-virus (provided by Kaspersky), content filtering, anti-spam and intrusion prevention.
Protecting a single PC from harm usually involves installing a software firewall. However, on a server the overhead this causes can be too much, hence Innominate's mGuard PCI firewall, which has its own 266MHz processor and 32MB of RAM. We tested the professional version. There is also an enterprise version with higher specifications and a greatly improved management interface.
While most firewall appliances will run a custom operating system, or secured version of Linux, Celestix has decided to use Microsoft's Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) 2004 Server as the basis for its MSA4000 appliance. It runs Windows Server 2003 using 1GB of RAM and an 80GB hard disk. This, obviously, adds to the price of the appliance.
Think of firewalls and Check Point is inevitably the first name that springs to mind, probably followed by thoughts of huge expense. This is not the case with Check Point Express, which brings high-end firewall technology to mid-sized businesses.
BorderWare's SteelGate SG-200 runs the company's own firewall, Firewall Server 7.1, running on the S-Core secure operating system. Rather than building an appliance from the ground up, the SG-200 is simply a PC (2GHz Intel Celeron Processor, 512MB RAM and a 40GB hard disk) in a rack-mountable chassis.
Symantec's Gateway Security 5460 is the largest, and one of the most powerful, appliances that we have had on test. It has eight Gigabit Ethernet ports, which can be configured to segregate a network or for high availability. The firewall can also be configured to load balance between a cluster, improving performance provided you have the correct license.
ZyXEL's ZyWall 35 shows that, while small in dimensions, it is not small on features. The front panel of the appliance houses two WAN and four LAN Fast Ethernet ports, while the rear of the device has out-of-band management through it is console port and a PC Card slot, so you can add 802.11g WiFi (see company website for supported cards).