TeraSpawn intros secured broadband routers to U.S. market
By John Spofford
Managing Editor, Premises Networks Online
TeraSpawn Technologies Inc., a year-old company based in Taiwan, is courting the U.S. networking market with a series of low-cost network security appliances. The company, which up to now mainly has done OEM work in both Korea and Taiwan, is actively seeking partners in the U.S., said Phillip Chuck, Teraspawn senior vice president of sales and marketing, at last months' N+I show in Atlanta.
"We've placed our own security kernel into a series of broadband routers [that include] firewall features. The main difference in the products is in how we've packaged them," said Chuck.
The company also has a stated goal to establish worldwide channels by means of its offices in China, Hong Kong, North America, Singapore, and Taiwan.
TeraSpawn's product line provides multi-system security that integrates authentication, encryption, firewall, anti-virus, and HTTP tunneling. Each of the products enforce an Internet security policy that provides network protection from intrusion and attacks by means of application-layer filtering (filtering incoming data for dangerous or objectionable content), denying unauthorized access and preventing denial of service attacks, network address translation, access control, and URL blocking.
Geared for small offices, TeraSpawn's BR1300 features seven 10/100 switched Ethernet ports.
A range of five products were in evidence at N+I. Each is packaged as a small desktop unit (see photo, above).
At the low end of the scale is the BR1200 Broadband Router/Firewall. Billed as a small office/home office (SOHO) device, the BR1200 provides a 10 base-T WAN interface providing a capacity of 10 MB per second intended for use with cable modems or asymmetrical digital subscriber line (ADSL) Internet access. The unit provides four Ethernet ports as a LAN interface essentially working as a 10 Base-T hub.
The other two units in the Broadband Router series add features to the 1200. For example, the BR1300, targeted at small offices, upgrades the LAN interface with seven switched Ethernet 10/100 Base-T ports.
Physical "DMZ" port
The BR1400 upgrades the WAN interface to 10/100 Mbps Ethernet and provides a LAN interface includes the Ethernet 10/100 Base-T port plus a physical "DMZ" (De-Militarized Zone) 10/100 Base-T port. A necessary complement to any always-on Internet connection, the DMZ port allows users on the Internet to access information on public servers, such as Web or e-mail servers, while maintaining the security of the private LAN.
In conjunction with NAT (Network Address Translation), the DMZ permits the computer assigned with public IP addresses on the LAN to simultaneously co-exist with the private IP subnet, while other computers are protected by NAT. In this way, visitors may easily access a company's public servers, such as FTP, HTTP, POP3, SMTP, etc.
Adding a virtual private network
TeraSpawn's two most advanced boxes comprise its VPN series. Each device takes the network protection of the BR series, and adds virtual private network (VPN) functionality that uses the IPSec industry protocol to provide secure communication over the Internet. VPNs are promoted by the company as a way to eliminate the need for leased lines between branch offices, customers, suppliers, and partners.
While both products are targeted at small business, the VPN2000 provides VPN functionality through software. In contrast, the VPN2100 provides hardware encryption for wire speed performance. The VPN2100 uses a dedicated IPSec packet-processing engine and real-time data compression. Encryption methods include 168 bit Triple-DES, 56 bit DES and 56 bit ARCFour (ARC4), and IKE key management.
TeraSpawn Technologies Inc.
9F., No. 580, Jui Kuang Rd., Nei Hu,
Taipei (114), Taiwan
Tel: 886(2)2627 1111
Fax: 886(2)2627 1122