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FaceTime IM Guardian RTG500

This is a 1U rack-mountable appliance that is designed to completely protect corporate networks.

Because IM traffic is so difficult to track down, the RTG500 detects and enforces based on patterns in the application layer of the OSI model – layer 7. It integrates seamlessly with existing network infrastructures and can be deployed in the corporate DMZ as well as the internal LAN.

The appliance is based on a locked-down Linux kernel and comes complete with two 10/100/1000Mbps network interface cards, a 2.8GHz Intel P4 processor, 512MB of memory and an 80GB ATA hard drive.

Management of the RTG500 is achieved by pointing a standard web browser at the device's default IP address. To improve security, the appliance includes only the software needed to run its core functionality, and monitors all incoming and outgoing IM traffic for popular IM providers, while casting a beady eye over P2P technologies.

One of the great things about this product is the detailed reports on bandwidth use, application behavior and security policy enforcement, and ease of installation.

FaceTime allows you to deploy a number of security policies from those based on the refreshingly simple IP address range to a more complex system based on destination port to control port crawling.

The management interface for the box is straightforward. By default it blocks all IM and P2P traffic except authorized IP addresses or proxy servers. The latter should be a FaceTime authorized server, such as IM Auditor and IM Director.You can also specify client actions such as blocking transferring files and opening direct connections with other IM users.

The RTG500 is a formidable weapon to use against IM threats.

Product title
FaceTime IM Guardian RTG500
Product info
Name: FaceTime IM Guardian RTG500 (IM security tools group test) Description: Price: from $5 to $25 for the security appliance (based on number of users)
Strength
Simple policy set-up and detailed report generation.
Weakness
Price might prove prohibitive for some.
Verdict
A great tool to have in the fight against real-time communication threats.

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