Network Computingwww.networkcomputing.com

NetScreen offers 10- and 25-user licenses for the NetScreen-5. We were unable to test the device with 200 concurrent users, as we did with other products, but it's intended for the SOHO market, where there are seldom more than a handful of users.

Although the NetScreen-5 offers fewer bandwidth management knobs than the others provide, test results show it still does a more than adequate job of traffic shaping. The NetScreen-5 posted a first-place finish in our rate-control tests and also fared well in our tests of mixed-class traffic handling.

The NetScreen-5 can be set up and managed from Web or command-line interfaces. Both interfaces offer three ways to control bandwidth: a guaranteed level, a maximum level and a relative priority level. The device does not offer explicit control over individual connections within a given policy.

One minor nit: The NetScreen-5 offers interfaces that run only at 10 Mbps, and not at 10 and 100 Mbps. Given that the external interface for this device will almost certainly be connected to a low-bandwidth DSL or cable modem link, the 10-Mbps speed limit isn't a major problem. Still, a few routers, switches and hubs with 100-Mbps-only interfaces are available, and it would be helpful if the NetScreen-5 could be attached to them.

NetScreen-5, $995, NetScreen Technologies, (408) 330-7800, (800) 638-8296; fax (408) 588-9913, www.netscreen.com.