Schools and businesses can greatly benefit from the wealth of information that is available on the Internet. But with that benefit comes the security risk that unauthorized users may access the network to steal information. Some hackers get their thrill by crashing or corrupting PCs and servers. To help companies reduce these security risks, SonicWall, Inc. developed SonicWall SOHO. SonicWall SOHO offers state-of-the-art software and hardware technology to provide a secure, easy-to-install, reliable, and affordable firewall for businesses with a few users to several hundreds of users.
To protect the private network against Internet-based theft, destruction or modification of data, SonicWall SOHO implements stateful packet inspection, a technology similar to that used in enterprise-level firewall products offered by Check Point and Cisco. SonicWall SOHO will allow data coming from the Internet only if it's part of a session that was initiated by one of the users on the secure Local Area Network (LAN). Hackers and other unauthorized users will be stopped at SonicWall SOHO and not allowed on the private network. When SonicWall SOHO is installed, the network is protected from Denial of Service Attacks, such as Ping of Death, SYN Flood, IP Spoofing, and LAND. When new hacker attacks are discovered, SonicWall, Inc. adds protection from them to the SonicWall SOHO software. SonicWall SOHO goes an extra step by automatically notifying the administrator when there is a new software release available. SonicWall SOHO customers get free software updates. In addition to stopping unauthorized users from accessing the secure LAN, SonicWall SOHO allows a school or company management to determine which Internet sites or Newsgroups should be accessible. The network administrator simply selects the categories of content to block, such as pornography, intolerance or violence, and SonicWall SOHO will automatically block the sites that fall under those categories. SonicWall SOHO uses the highly regarded CyberNOT Content Filter List from Microsystems Software, also used in products offered by distinguished organizations such as America Online, AT&T, IBM, Microsoft, Netscape and The Scholastic Network. The SonicWall VPN Upgrade is also available to provide an easy, affordable way for companies to establish Virtual Private Network (VPN) connections with business partners, as well as remote and branch offices. VPN uses data encryption and the Internet to provide transparent, secure communications between two or more sites without the expense of leased site-to-site lines. SonicWall SOHO was designed for ease of installation and administration. Installation involves simply connecting SonicWall SOHO between the private network and Internet router, spending a few minutes selecting the filtering options from the intuitive, Web browser based configuration screen, and the users and network are secure. No reconfiguration of any PC applications is needed.