Symantec plans to introduce on Monday a series of secure networking appliances that it hopes will help it pick up more small business customers.
Each product in the Gateway Security 300 Series will include six integrated security functions, along with an option for a secure wireless access point for LANs (local area networks), according to Symantec.
"We"ve been providing security appliance solutions for a number of years and have made some advances," said George Sluz, a group product manager at the Cupertino, Calif.-based company. "We have a number of models for large enterprises but wanted to target small businesses. In the past, people have mainly relied on firewalls and VPNs (virtual private networks)."
The devices integrate firewall, intrusion prevention, intrusion detection, antivirus policy enforcement, content-filtering and VPN capabilities. There are three models in the series: the 320, 360 and 360R. They are designed to analyze information packets and their destinations, to block malicious packets, to monitor computers for viruses, and to automatically update Symantec antivirus software.
Each appliance also includes an automatic-dial back-up feature, designed to ensure that a company"s Internet connection isn"t lost if a main broadband connection falters.