Netsentron

NetSentron, a division of Kobelt Development Inc.

Type	Web Security Gateway, Web filtering, Virtual Private Network and Information Leak Prevention, Unified Threat Management
Industry	Information Technology
Founded	2002
Headquarters	Surrey, British Columbia
Area served	International
Key people	Tom Kobelt, Vice President
Parent	http://www.kdi.ca
Website	http://www.netsentron.com/

NetSentron is a network security appliance designed and sold by Kobelt Development Inc. (KDI), a Surrey, British Columbia-based IT services company. The NetSentron appliance is a firewall, Website content filter, and Virtual Private Network/remote access device—often referred to as a unified threat management product.

History

NetSentron was privately developed by KDI in 2002^[1]. The product is available both as a hardware appliance and software which must be loaded onto equivalent hardware. The initial target market was businesses, to provide ultra-high security data transfer with its AES-256 bit encryption. When using the NetSentron to securely transfer data between two or more locations the data is protected at a level approved of for moving US Top Secret-rated data. Over time, however, schools wanting to protect their students from being exposed to inappropriate Internet content (as defined by individual school administrators: examples include pornography, hate, gambling, Instant Messaging and music download sites) became interested in the NetSentron because of the appliance's true content filter^[2]. Update patches are periodically released.

Features

The NetSentron provides many features for network security and management. These include^[3]:

• Firewall with Intrusion Detection System
• Virtual Private Network / remote access with AES-256 bit encryption
• True Content Filter
• Bandwidth Monitoring
• Traffic Shaping
• Popup Blocker
• Spam Filter

The NetSentron hardware appliance is available in two sizes^[4]. The original is a 1U server rack, configurable for supporting up to 200, 400 or 800 concurrent Internet users depending on the option purchased. For smaller operations, a Small Form Factor supports up to 50 concurrent Internet users.

The true content filter uses both a traditional Blacklist together with algorithmic methodology to review the content of websites the Internet user wishes to view against administrator-entered words and phrases. If inappropriate content is discovered, the user is blocked from viewing the site. The administrator can turn the true content filter off, or set the sensitivity at any level all the way up to Whitelist Web access only. Categories of access can also be set for different user groups (eg. students & teachers, employees and managers).

References

1. ^ KDI - Press Release, May 13, 2002, Kobelt Development Inc., http://www.kdi.ca/pressMay13.html, retrieved 2009-01-30 
2. ^ Library Software Filters, The Galecia Group, http://libraryfiltering.org/?pid=11, retrieved 2009-01-30 
3. ^ NetSentron Specs, Kobelt Development Inc., http://www.netsentron.com/specs/, retrieved 2009-01-30 
4. ^ NetSentron Pricing, Kobelt Development Inc., http://www.netsentron.com/pricing/, retrieved 2009-01-30 

External links

• Product homepage