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I haven't plugged it in yet. I took my Windows computer in for repairs and haven't gotten it back yet. Despite always using anti-virus and anti-malware systems. They didn't help much: I just received a phone call from the repair shop and my hard drive is dead. They'll replace it with a slightly larger drive at a reasonable cost. The bad drive was 120 gigabytes. I have a couple of 160 gigabyte drives lying around, if I can find them. The sweet spot now seems to be 320 gigabytes, much more than I need but little more expensive than the smaller alternatives. But that computer was constantly being taken down by some kind of infection.
I used to try to fix things myself but I'm getting too old, and my experience is too old, so I decided to have a professional do it. The last time I killed an infestation of worms, it took me about five days ... and at that time I had a space in which I could work comfortably. My tools are now scattered, I'm not sure what I'm doing and I get constant interruptions. Being in the basement had its advantages that having half a room upstairs lack.
It is now cheaper to use a general purpose computer rather than using a specially designed piece of hardware. Most routers made in the past few years are thinly disguised computers. Cellular phones spurred the development of cheap low-power computers that led to devices like Apple's iPhone; netbook computers are based on those same computers.
<aside>I've used a Palm handheld for many years, not always the same device. I've found their size leads to easy portability, they are capable of useful functions, and I can synchronize them with my computer. For many years, I could only synchronize with Windows computers, but now my Mac can do almost anything with my Palm that the Windows machines can. What I find frustrating is that the people writing and selling Palm software are absolutely paranoid about protecting themselves from their customers, to the point that the software becomes useless. It has reached the point that I'm seriously considering getting an iPod Touch now that it will run my favorite diabetes software, Diabetes Pilot. I expect Apple to announce a new version of the Touch in September and will make my decision then.</aside>
The device shouldn't require much in the way of configuration. Paranoia prevails, however, and the manufacturer complicates things unnecessarily. You have to register the Yoggie with the manufacturer and with the provider of the security software. You can optionally install unnecessary drivers from the CD that comes with the machine. The unnecessary complication is made worse by misleading instructions. You should be able to just plug the device between your cable modem and router and have the defaults take care of everything else. But they never seem to learn to keep things simple.
Speaking of plugs, there aren't many. There are plugs for Internet in and out, for power, a USB for portable wireless connection, and a memory card slot. Even the wall wart used for power is unnecessary since the device can be powered from its USB connection.
What I've said above only applies for protecting a network. The Yoggie Gatekeeper can also be used to protect individual computers by connecting only the USB connector. That's sort of pointless, as Yoggie produces much smaller, cheaper devices that look like memory sticks that are designed to protect either Macs or Windows machines. The individual protection mode works by intercepting Internet signals within the computer.
Protection consists of anti-virus, anti-spyware, mail spam control, phishing prevention, intrusion detection, intrusion prevention, a firewall and a VPN client. Okay, they also have parental control, which I should use to keep Delia from destroying my system.
If you ever think your system has been compromised, you can restore everything to factory condition by just unplugging for a few minutes and plugging back in.
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