Today's businesses require the robust security offered by a dedicated firewall appliance for their growing networks. These same businesses also inevitably require switching capabilities to connect multiple users and workgroups. Until recently, these solutions had to be purchased as separate products, resulting in higher costs and increased deployment and management complexity. Now there's a solution that offers the security of a deep packet inspection firewall and the convenience of workgroup switching in one appliance. The SonicWALL PRO 1260 is a total security and switching platform designed for small network applications. The PRO 1260 combines deep inspection firewall and IPSec VPN capabilities with an intelligent, wire-speed, 24-port auto-sensing MDIX switch in a single, convenient network security and LAN switching platform. This unique appliance can be configured either as an unmanaged switch under SonicOS Standard or as an intelligent managed LAN switching platform through the powerful SonicWALL PortShield (PortShield) architecture enabled in SonicOS Enhanced, an optional upgrade for PRO 1260. The innovative PortShield architecture allows all 24 ports on the PRO 1260 to be independently and easily configured into custom security zones (PortShield groups), each with its own "virtual firewall, " along with granular rate limiting on each interface. Virtual firewalling ensures the ports are secured not only from the Internet, but also from other devices on the LAN. Additionally, SonicOS Enhanced allows more sophisticated managed switching functions such as port-level rate limiting, traffic monitoring and statistics, and configurability for link duplex and speed. For businesses with basic network requirements, the PRO 1260 running SonicOS Standard integrates deep packet inspection capabilities with three independent security zones: WAN, Optional port and 24-port LAN. The Optional port can either be configured as a DMZ, providing the convenience of a scalable, all-in-one solution at a low total-cost-of-ownership. This highly integrated, rack-mountable security appliance ships in an unrestricted node configuration and supports gateway anti-virus, anti-spyware, intrusion prevention and content filtering, providing real-time protection against viruses, spyware, worms, Trojans and other malicious threats. The PRO 1260 can be easily managed remotely as part of a multi-firewall and VPN environment through a Web interface or using SonicWALL's industry-leading Global Management System (GMS).