News

Wired and wireless; Toshiba gets into cable modem gateways

It's a US announcement; and US cable modems aren't the same as the ones Telewest and NTL would give you in Europe, but the new PCX5000 Wireless Cable Modem Gateway could point the way for Toshiba, and others, in providing home networking.

The American announcement claims that "the PCX5000 represents the only device in its class to include a cable modem, wireless router and Internet security technology" - the security being virtual private network, plus firewall. It's based on a product called VPN-1/FireWall-1, from Check Point Software Technologies.

The hardware won't work (in all probability) in the UK; but all it would need, would be to package this software into the equivalent European hardware, and home users would have not just proper WiFi access point, but also four Ethernet wired sockets in one router, and the option of really water-tight security over the Internet.

It remains to be seen whether this is genuinely a "home" solution. Typically, virtual private networks are not simple out-of-the-box installations, and Toshiba's experience in networking is in the corporate arena. The press release quotes Paul E. Proctor, who is billed as "security expert and author of The Secured Enterprise: Protecting Your Information Assets" - he's also president of Practical Security, Inc. His opinion: "The Check Point Stateful Inspection technology is one of the most widely accepted commercial-grade firewall technologies in the market. Now home users will have the same protection large enterprises have enjoyed for years."

Yes, no doubt; but they won't have an IT department of the sort large enterprises have, and Toshiba seems unalert to the fact that this might be an issue.

This product is supposed to ship in the US next month (October 2002) and Toshiba in Europe couldn't be reached for comment by press time. However, sources suggested that it was "highly unlikely" that a simultaneous launch would be planned.