Admin-Friendly, Single-Point Control - Simplest Approach to Achieve Desired Results

Having introduced wireless security and management solutions for the public wireless LAN space (PWLAN), today Cipherium announced a new Multi-Function Secure Access Gateway product for small to medium sized businesses (SMB) – NETFIELD MB120 Office Network Controller, which will be released in February 2007. As the network access control (NAC) market matures, the commonly offered solutions are becoming more sophisticated at authenticating and managing users and devices. Meanwhile, the trend in applying network access policies to users and devices these years has however driven SMB companies, those who desire less complexity and have limited budget, to start looking seriously at the benefits of a centrally managed network. The approach is to simplify network deployment and administration – with the most functions at the lowest TCO – without ending up with multiple systems for managing one office network .

Today, WLANs are obviously deemed a fast, economical way to quickly set up (new) office networks for SMBs or branch offices to adapt their network to additions and changes. The existing wired network is not being replaced but is being augmented to extend the network coverage by the wireless. But consider that a typical SMB is budget-constrained on adopting IT technologies and has less on-site IT maintenance resource to procure and manage complex networking solutions. Let alone the concern for a bunch of hideous security issues. There's no surprise SMBs are holding back WLAN deployment when it comes to managing wired and wireless segments at the same time. The ideal network for such organizations therefore must be straightforward and easily managed - an integrated total solution will make a secure, manageable network environment no longer an economical and operational no-no to them.

NetField MB120 targets the SMB and branch office sector by designing a prescription for how to turn the daunting task of rolling out an office-wide wired/wireless infrastructure to an IT-less turnkey setup. To make the wireless fit into the existing network infrastructure easily, MB120 supports multiple industry-standard authentication methods simultaneously – it supports WAN, wired LAN, and wireless LAN networks all at one time. To tackle essential operational tasks such as protecting data transmission, provisioning user access and keeping firmware up to date, MB120 offers a multi-functional platform without adding another pile of consoles. Moreover, to guarantee connection continuity, MB120 supports WAN failover by providing two WAN links. SMBs now can experience productivity improvement and business continuity benefits previously reserved for larger enterprises, without compromising network security – especially corporate WLAN deployments are quickly moving beyond common areas as conference rooms, lobbies, and cafeterias to include individual work spaces.

The self-contained MB120 addresses the most concerning issues as follows:

ROLE-BASED AND POLICY-BASED ACCESS CONTROL
The role-based identity management of MB120 restricts who can get onto the network and what they can do once connected; in other words, setting policies to authenticate and authorize users' access to specific resources based on user and device identity. Having this capability will allow different users in one office environment to enjoy different levels of network services such as predetermined bandwidth usage threshold – either total bandwidth of a group or individual bandwidth utilization can be limited. The administrator can find it easy to get applications, user groups and access points defined all on a web interface. To set up the port-location mapping by VLAN ID could be sometimes really annoying, even to IT experts. Don't mention how it would become a burden for smaller organizations without in-house MIS. However, if the access control is identity based, it doesn't matter which port a user plugs into!

SECURE VPN CONNECTION
Want to minimize the possibility of eavesdropping on network communications? In addition to standard encryption capabilities as WEP and WPA and standard firewall protection, MB120 further brings a powerful security solution to home office, small office and branch office networks – IPSec VPN, providing the highest security for data transmitted over wireless link. With MB120 running IPSec VPN termination with clientless approach, the administrator can set management policies and force a select of individuals or groups to apply IPSec VPN on their computers. It works in a walk: MB120 will actively establish VPN tunnels while the selected users are logging in. The same clientless VPN setup implementation can also be extended to remote users in accessing office network from public Internet. Once the remote client-to-site VPN tunnels are established, traveling employees can link back to the office network via reliable, secure connections using their PDAs and laptops. The VPN module can also be configured to support site-to-site VPN tunnels among branch offices.

INSTANT GUST ACCOUNT GENERATION
Certain user groups with specific privilege - defined by the administrator - can generate instant guest account for visitors simply by clicking one button on the Successful Login page on their own computers. To avoid outsiders sharing the private access-control network as the company's Intranet, visitors are only allowed to access a publicly available network, e.g. the Internet only. The generated instant account is a one-time ticket with time-limit access right, which is also beneficial to reduce the impact on office network security and bandwidth loading. Granting Internet access to visitors will come in helpful to rev up the productivity of daily business meetings.

REMOTE ACCESS POINT (AP) MANAGEMENT
By capturing the advantages of Cipherium's NAC M-series, MB120 offer the centralized remote AP management, which controls up to 12 access points per single system. MB120 can automatically discover manageable 802.11 based APs and enroll them to the device list. The administrator can remotely install and configure these APs and restart the AP that is detected as failure, saving the labor of serving each AP individually. Other handy features include remote status monitoring, system alarms and statistic reports, etc.

<About Cipherium Systems>
Cipherium Systems Co., Ltd. is a leading provider of production-ready networking software platforms in Taiwan . Cipherium designs and develops value-added software for wireless-centric, IP-based networking applications and solutions, enabling our ODM partners to rapidly and cost-effectively address changing market demands - at home, in the office, at a hotspot, or on a municipal network.

<Press Contact>
Siva Huang
Cipherium Systems Co., Ltd.
886-2-2718-7000 x801
siva.huang@cipherium.com.tw