Photo gallery: AlphaShield FirewallThe pocket-novel-size AlphaShield is unobtrusively small but looks and feels fairly cheap. Its silver-plastic top contains several rough edges that make it look like it was yanked from a sloppily constructed mold. The two blue-and-grey buttons on top that connect and disconnect your computer from the Net are shakily seated, causing them to wiggle more than we'd like. Lining the front edge are three tiny LED status lights, two change from red to green when your broadband modem and computer are plugged into the device, and the third turns green when your system is connected to the Net.
Three RJ-45 jacks on the back edge accommodate your cable or DSL modem and two other Ethernet-based devices, such as a computer or a router (sorry, dial-up users: the AlphaShield lacks an RJ-11 jack). Yet only the cable/DSL jack and one of the additional RJ-45 jacks are protected by the AlphaShield's firewall features -- the third jack is fair game for unwanted pings and data packets. In contrast, most routers include four jacks that all enjoy the same security protections. The rear edge also offers a switch for setting the device to one of its three connection modes: Auto, in which the device remains constantly connected to the Internet until you press the Disconnect button or shut down your system; 15, in which the AlphaShield disconnects your computer from the Net after 15 minutes of inactivity but does not abandon its IP address; and Lock, in which AlphaShield both disconnects your system after 15 minutes of inactivity and dumps its IP address. Though the automated modes are convenient for the forgetful, you can achieve the same result by unplugging your Ethernet cable or shutting down your system, both of which cost you nothing.
AlphaShield's assertion that device setup takes less than a minute is more or less true. Unlike most routers and access points, the device has no software-setup wizards or browser-based configuration tools. The brief hard-copy installation guide advises you to simply connect the AC adapter to the device and a power outlet, plug your broadband modem and computer into the appropriate jacks, and press the blue Connect button. While its specs claim that the device is plug and play, we had to restart our modem and computer before getting a Web connection. The overall straightforward setup puts a security baseline in place, providing your computer with basic blockage of unrequested data packets (similar to SPI) and IP-address screening. On the flip side, the absence of a configuration tool means you can't adjust these settings to fit your needs. For example, you can't change the protected RJ-45 port settings to allow a specific port to be accessed through the firewall, something you might need to do for gaming or videoconferencing.
In our basic tests, the AlphaShield successfully protected our computer. We began by disabling the Windows firewall settings on our XP-based laptop. We then instructed HackerWatch.org, an antihacker site, to send unwelcome data packets, which our notebook accepted. When we connected the AlphaShield to the laptop and again asked HackerWatch to send unwanted data packets, our laptop refused the data. We should note that our notebook also refused these packets while disconnected from the AlphaShield yet with Windows firewall settings enabled.
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