This device (formerly known as InstaGate SCM 300) is designed to provide a complete solution to the problems of content management in general.
To achieve that end, it uses a 1U rack-mountable device with two Gigabit Ethernet ports, an Intel Pentium 4 2.6GHz processor, 1Gb RAM and a RAID 1 disk array.
Designed to support up to 2,000 users, the system can be configured in several modes to suit most network configurations.
Setting up the unit is simple, using a browser over an SSL connection to the unit's default IP address. The device can accept an address from a DHCP server or it can choose an address that does not conflict with any already assigned on the network.
The system launches a set up wizard to guide you through the process. Indeed, the system can be up and running in minutes.
The management interface looks similar to those used in eSoft's InstaGate firewall devices, and is very easy to use.
The device can be set up in transparent mode, so there is no need to change any existing network settings or DNS records, or it can be set up in proxy mode. This does require changes to the DNS Mail Exchange records, but gives the added security of enabling user authentication.
The system follows eSoft's other products in using its SoftPak system to update and install various software modules. This enables the user to tailor their software to their specific needs, rather than having to buy the complete set of features, some of which they might have no need for. Apart from the obvious cost savings, this also helps to reduce administration overheads and possible software conflicts, and simplifies software updates.
The ThreatWall Spam Filter SoftPak is pre-installed, and provides comprehensive filtering options with sensible default values that can be altered to suit specific circumstances. In tests it performed well.
The ThreatWall SA software is available separately, and can be installed on any suitable hardware, although a certain amount of familiarity with Linux would probably be useful if taking this route.
