Yoggie’s Gatekeeper Pico

[Clairvoyant]

Seen this on the gadget show, wondering if its any good.

(currently nod32/vista firewall)

Now I cant see it speeding my pc up as nod is not s resource hogger.

 

[RobH]

Yeah I saw that too, I listen to the Security Now! podcast and they said they were going to do a whole show about it in the next few weeks so it might be worth a listen.

Many have been asking about a new gizmo called the Yoggie Pico, Y-o-g-g-i-e P-i-c-o, as in very, very tiny. It's a USB system, I mean a full Linux PC running a small Intel chip in a USB dongle. And it purports to be a security system. So you plug it in, it installs a low-level NDIS driver, which is down deep in the kernel, that allows it to intercept all incoming and outgoing traffic. Essentially it puts a Linux system in a USB dongle inline to your network connection. So I just wanted to acknowledge all the requests from people about, gee, Steve, what do you think about that? I mean, the idea sounds great. I've noted it, and we will give it a show after I've had a chance to thoroughly scope it out and see how it works and if I see any problems with it.

 

[Craig321]

I can't see this thing being any better than a proper firewall/anti virus solution (NOD32 + Comodo, or even NOD32 + just the built in router firewall).

The thing would still need software on your computer to re-direct and scan everything that goes through the computer into the dongle, which would slow it down just as much as normal anti virus/firewall software wouldn't it?

 

[Sinopa]

I can't see this thing being any better than a proper firewall/anti virus solution (NOD32 + Comodo, or even NOD32 + just the built in router firewall).

The thing would still need software on your computer to re-direct and scan everything that goes through the computer into the dongle, which would slow it down just as much as normal anti virus/firewall software wouldn't it?

Redirecting data with a low level software driver hook would take next to no time. Once redirected, the dedicated Yoggie processor would take the load of the main processor.

Looks like there is no 64bit support

 

[Craig321]

Redirecting data with a low level software driver hook would take next to no time.

Surely that's what a decent firewall/anti virus does anyway?

 

[RobH]

Surely that's what a decent firewall/anti virus does anyway?

Yeah but the actual AV/Firewall is running on the machine your using rather than an external device so it's using processing power and memory still.

Looks like there is no 64bit support

That's probably to do with the additional kernel protection in Windows x64.

 

[JIM_BOB7813]

There's a thread in the linux sub forum: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17769918

Craig, it's pretty much a whole system on USB, so after you pass it your network traffic, it performs the Antivirus scan/IDS data collection/spam filtering, then passes back any good data back across USB to your PC.

 

[Craig321]

Yeah but the actual AV/Firewall is running on the machine your using rather than an external device so it's using processing power and memory still.



That's probably to do with the additional kernel protection in Windows x64.

True, but surely the fact that everything has to be passed through the dongle will slow things down just as much meaning there'd be little, if any, performance increase, especially as the dongles CPU can't be that fast & would be operating through USB 2.0?

There's a thread in the linux sub forum: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17769918

Craig, it's pretty much a whole system on USB, so after you pass it your network traffic, it performs the Antivirus scan/IDS data collection/spam filtering, then passes back any good data back across USB to your PC.

That's what I'm saying, the fact that it has to be passed through this little computer dongle & then passed through USB 2.0 would surely slow the computer down just as much as a normal AV would?

Your data still has to be scanned and processed before the computer can have it, so there'd still be a slowdown...?

 

[Cew27]

so i couldnt run it in vita 64 bit? that sucks does it require software to be installed? or can i just plug it into my linux server and get going?

 

[JIM_BOB7813]

That's what I'm saying, the fact that it has to be passed through this little computer dongle & then passed through USB 2.0 would surely slow the computer down just as much as a normal AV would?

Yeh it would increase latency a bit, but reduces the load on your CPU,all scanning & "processor intensive" stuff is done on the pico (although it's not *that* much work).

Cew, it requires a windows driver, so i presume it would be difficult (impossible) to make it work on linux, but the gatekeeper pro would work fine on linux (dual ethernet ports, doesn't use a USB interface, only to get power).
But that's £140, and don't forget that you only get a 1 year subscription so will be paying another £20? next year.

 

[JIM_BOB7813]

or can i just plug it into my linux server and get going?

If you're setting up a Linux server, then it would be far cheaper to install all the software on the server (most of which is free anyway).
The gatekeeper pro only has a 100mb NIC, so would severely cripple your GB ethernet connection on the asus mobo, you'd need to get 1 NIC that connects to your router (via gatekeeper) and 1 NIC that connects to your LAN via gigabit (i think?)