NetScreen Technologies, Inc. has announced new features for the NetScreen-5XT that will increase the level of security provided for companies looking needing a secure way of connecting to remote sites and telecommuters. Also, the new ScreenOS for the NetScreen-5XT will be available starting Nov. 8, 2002.

Restricted Zone - This feature will enable remote sites to establish two security segments to isolate different internal networks or PCs from one another. As a given example, Netscreen representatives mentioned this situation: a retailer can establish a restricted zone to connect computers handling mission-critical point-of-sale transactions while allowing the other ports on the NetScreen-5XT to be used for customer-facing Internet-enabled kiosks.


Fail-over capabilities - New intelligent fail-over capabilities will provide the ability to configure two "untrusted" interfaces that can be connected to two different ISPs, allowing communications to fail over to the second service provider in the event that the first provider suffers an outage.

David Flynn, VP of marketing at NetScreen said: "Remote sites with multiple connection requirements often create unique problems for the network manager. The new software for the NetScreen-5XT not only increases the overall security and resiliency for highly distributed enterprises, it eases management and deployment for administrators, minimizing the time and costs associated with addressing remote issues."