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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).

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.

Red-M's Red-Alert Pro is a wireless intrusion detection probe that senses 802.11 a, b, g, and even Bluetooth activity simultaneously. It logs security threats and feeds the details to a Red Detect server if run in managed mode, or stores it if run standalone. Red-Alert Pro keeps track of connections between known and unknown devices, making an alert whenever a new unknown device is present and informing you of which device(s) the unknown entity is communicating with. If run in standalone mode, the security logs can be accessed via a convenient and intuitive web interface. If run in managed mode, the Red Detect server handles the logs.

This is a flexible, robust, very scalable and multi-purpose wireless security solution. It provides rogue detection, troubleshooting, vulnerability assessment, intrusion detection, performance management and usage accounting. It has a standard Windows GUI with an open source Firebird database that includes a secure, password-protected interface, and can be easily configured both for a small business or a large enterprise.

Computer Associates' Wireless Site Management 4.0 is a fully featured WLAN security and management suite. The software is mainly aimed at larger organizations, but it could be implemented for any company running a wireless network.

AirDefense Enterprise is one of those wireless-security products that integrates into the enterprise as an integral part of the overall network management scheme.

BlueSecure from Bluesocket is a leader in its field. Why? Because while most wireless security products are not able to detect anyone walking up with a wireless capable computer and connecting to their network, BlueSecure detects computers, access points, or any other type of wireless connection device.

This complete software offering can be installed on almost any system in the organization to capture data from the system's internal wireless card. But check the compatibility chart before ordering, as only a specific set of wireless cards are supported.

We have looked at DESlock+ before, with its DESkey USB tokens and file encryption software. And while the previous version impressed us enough to win Best Buy in our Data Encryption test last year, it is safe to say that the product has been improved by leaps and bounds since then.

NMS for PC v2.8 is a file encryption system with some interesting bells and whistles. The software integrates into the Windows logon process, using logon to ensure that access to encrypted data is limited to authorized users.

Using zip archives to compress and transfer files has become such a standard part of everyday computing that the notion of using the same tools for security should come easily to most users.

Control Break's SafeBoot offers a lot of features, but we were a bit put off by several being cited as available at an extra cost, including some basic-looking items such as a scripted administration tool, or a database backup utility.

SafeGuard Easy encrypts the entire disk and places agent software in the master boot record, requiring authentication before the OS is loaded.

Blackspider's MailControl service won a Best Buy in SC Magazine last year for its strong service offering, and although FrontBridge beat it to the line this time around, MailControl is still a very good service indeed.