Transparent communication appliances

Overview Twice yearly, Intel sponsors a developer’s forum where various Intel divisions conduct technical classes and provide demonstrations of the latest technologies and product offerings. At the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) Spring 2000, a platform based on the Intel Entry-Level Communications Appliance Reference Design was showcased. This small form factor platform lends itself especially well to home offices, small businesses and Internet Service Providers (ISP). The platform may be configured to act as a security appliance, network bandwidth manager, mail or web server, among other uses. Web caching and Virtual Private Networking (VPN) were the features illustrated at the developer forum. The details of setup, configuration, and testing are documented in this article.