Looking to help small businesses fight the rising tide of viruses and worms spread by e-mail and the Internet, McAfee, a division of Network Associates Inc., Tuesday announced the immediate availability of its WebShield e250 antivirus appliance.
The WebShield e250 is a device placed at the customer's gateway and scans protocols such as HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol, the protocol used for Web traffic), SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, an e-mail standard), FTP (File Transfer Protocol) and POP3 (Post Office Protocol, another e-mail standard) for viruses, the company said. For networks of up to 500 users, the device scans all incoming and outbound traffic and can check between 50,000 and 60,000 messages per hour, according to McAfee.
The e250 is a standalone device, but like a number of McAfee appliances, it offers managed-services capability. Those features would have to be accessed by a service provider, however, as McAfee will not be providing those services, the company said. The WebShield e250 is shipping now and costs between US$5,000 and $6,000.
The announcement was made in conjunction with the InfoSec security conference being held in New York.
The IDG News Service first reported in October that the company would offer the e250.