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Review: Yoggie Gatekeeper Card Pro

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yoggie gatekeeper card pro
yoggie gatekeeper card pro

As we have reviewed Yoggie’s other security product (See Review: Yoggie Gatekeeper Pico security mini-computer)
it would be interesting to see what the security hardware company would
do next. Thankfully, it has seen fit to make a security mini-computer
that fits in your laptop’s PC Card slot.

Yoggie Security Systems have been
in the business of making laptop users more secure for a while now. It
has to be said that with, in effect, another computer hanging out of
the back of your own one, does mean that your laptop isn’t struggling
to perform various security process while fiddling about with that
presentation of Excel pivot table.

The Gatekeeper Pico did much the same job as this latest card, but as a
USB stick it meant that it had to be slotted in and taken out when you
take out or put away your laptop. This Card Pro device will sit nicely
within a PC Express card slot and work away happily without bothering
you.

The dimensions of the device have change significantly and it doesn’t
stop there. Inside it is still a Linux-based computer, but the
processor has changed from being an Intel PXA to a Freescale i.MX31.
Also, the ram has had a speed boost jumping from SDRAM to DDR. So, in
effect we should be party to an increase of speed of the security
functionality.

{mospagebreak}It is smaller than a regular PC card and runs at a lower voltage
(hopefully making this environmentally friendlier). Also, one handy
thing about the card is that it will fit laptops with both the
ExpressCard 54 and smaller ExpressCard 34 slots.

When using the card, you need to disable any software-based firewall or
other security apps running on the computer. The card slots into the
ExpressCard slot (if you have a PC Card slot, you will need an adapter.
Afterwards, it is a case of installing the driver and software on the
CD.

On first run, the software will download all the relevant updates,
which can take up to fifteen minutes, depending on connection speed.

As the Yoggie Gatekeeper Card Pro acts as a physical barrier between
the internet and your computer, there is no need to install any
security products on your PC. This should mean that you will see a
performance boost of the laptop itself.

The great thing about this and its siblings is that it is truly
forgetable. Once installed, you don’t need to do anything else like
updating signatures.

This again is handy because if you had to then you would need to update
13 layers of security. These layers include Adaptive Security Policy,
Multi-Layer Security Agent, Layer-8 Security
Engine, URL Categorisation and Filtering, Anti-Spam, Anti-Phishing,
Anti-Spyware, Anti-Virus, Transparent E-mail Proxies (POP3, SMTP),
Transparent Web Proxies (HTTP; FTP), Intrusion Detection/Prevention,
VPN Client, and Stateful Inspection Firewall.

{mospagebreak}Before data hits the computers OS, the software driver re-directs
traffic to the card where a full check-up is carried out. This should
then stamp out security breaches, passing only clean data to the
computer.

The card can also be configured to run in either corporate (managed)
mode or standalone. In corporate mode the device can conect to a Yoggie Management Server, which means that your IT manager can look after the laptop within the framework of your company’s security policy.

There are another couple of settings within the card. If you use a PPPOE dialler to make an internet connection, or if
you have trouble with email, web browsing or
receiving device updates, you can adjust the
MTU (Maximum Transmission Unit) setting. The Gatekeeper Card Pro must be configured to the same MTU as
Windows.

Some corporate firewalls restrict access to UDP port 9020, which is used
by Gatekeeper Card Pro’s web filtering engine. The Gatekeeper Card Pro can allow the Web Filtering engine to
operate on port 443 instead, which is always open on the
Firewall. This is the Remote Procedure Call (RPC)
mode.

{mospagebreak}Managing the card is done via the web-based management console. This
console provides status reports and security logs. The console also can
be used to
configure device settings, network settings and security policy. The reports are good and very graphic, which is easy on the eye and gets the right information in your hands quickly.

Overall, this card is a genuine set-it and forget-it type device. Once
it’s in and up and running you’ll forget that it’s even there.

Rating: 8/10

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