Review

Office Gateway 1.1.2 by BorderWare Technologies Inc.

By Terry Fong, Cyberwalker Media Syndicate

Cyber attacks that shut down prominent Web sites have heightened concerns about network and machine security.

A key component in the defence of any network is a good firewall. Borderware's Office Gateway is an industrial-grade firewall. Properly set up, it can serve small to medium-sized offices well but it has some limitations that require serious expertise to overcome.

Installation is quick and done in two steps, using an old-style console interface. The first step installs the operating system, a variant of BSD, one of the many flavors of Unix. The second step divides up hard drive space, with space to be allocated among such services as FTP files, Web pages, server logs and email. All this takes about 10 minutes once all options are selected.

Office Gateway offers two management methods; a menu driven console screen, available on the firewall system itself, and a GUI (graphic user interface) installed onto a Windows 95/98 or NT machine. The GUI interface has most abilities of the console, with the only noticeable thing missing being changing IP (Internet protocol) addresses. This lack would not be too serious in a system with a static IP address but is unworkable with dynamic addresses. Tests can be initiated, with the reports streaming into a window. Proxy services can be easily activated and added.

The primary focus of a firewall is security. Office Gateway offers several means, the most draconian being nothing is allowed until it is activated. That's very effective, but a major pain to configure, even with a GUI interface as aid. Two network cards are required, with each card being associated with either the internal network, usually the LAN (local area network), or an external network, generally the Internet. Services and proxies are separated and differentiated by their source. Using two cards makes it easy to hide machines on the internal network, making them harder to find and attack, leaving just the firewall to be attacked.

Configuration can be done externally, using a secure connection. Strangely, internal configuration can be done without a secure connection, a potential weakness if employed in this manner. Access can be accomplished by supplying a password or can be hardware based; Cryptocard authentication is supported.
The documentation is a bit confusing and limited; it shows where to find a task. This would not be so bad, but no templates or examples are provided, to guide administrators unfamiliar with security issues. More extensive explanations about security issues would also be helpful. Nor is there a comprehensive listing of supported hardware on the CD, although there is a document tucked away on the company Web site.

A serious limitation is that Office Gateway does not currently handle DHCP (dynamic host configuration protocol) or PPPoE (point-to-point protocol over Ethernet). Cable or DSL (digital subscriber line) Internet providers commonly use these two protocols to assign IP addresses. These addresses are dynamic and are therefore not supported by the software. Workarounds are possible -- but awkward.

Reviewer's rating: 2.75 / 5

Comments: Office Gateway by BorderWare Technologies is an expensive alternative to what can be done for much less or free. For businesses that lack the in-house expertise or has someone who doesn't mind tinkering, and businesses that want to centralize every option, this is an alternative. It is not compatible with all Internet providers but a trial version can be requested and evaluated before a decision is made.

System requirements: 64 MB RAM, Pentium 300 processor or better, 4 GB hard drive, CD-ROM, two network interface cards.

More information: http://www.borderware.com/products/offgateway.html

Price: $995 US, $1,495 Canadian