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Taking our E1-and-below category is Check Point's Floodgate-1. We tested the company's software running on a Sun Netra T1. Traffic management is accomplished by grouping services, which are defined by a protocol and port or port range, and applying weights to each group. The ability to define bursts, or borrowing capabilities, of a group is similar to that of QoS Control for e-Business. There are options available to define guaranteed amounts of bandwidth to particular groups with bursts available to others, or simply to define absolute limits per group. We set our services up as weighted groups. The weighting process can be a bit confusing. Weights are set from 1 to 1,000 and loosely correlate to percentages of bandwidth. The weights are relative and do not correlate directly with fixed bandwidth allocation.

Our testing showed that Floodgate-1 performed flawlessly at providing bandwidth managed as configured. SAP R/3 and HTTP saturated most of the link during our baseline tests, but with Floodgate-1 policies in place limiting the bandwidth of both groups, the other services were able to utilize their allocated amount of bandwidth. Unlike QoS Control for e-Business, Floodgate-1 implements Hierarchical Worst Case Fair Weighted Fair Queuing and utilizes a unique algorithm known as Retransmit Detection Early Drop (RDED), designed to eliminate TCP retransmits by preventing redundant retransmits from hitting the line. This feature is a plus, since it prevents retransmits from utilizing bandwidth that could be used by other traffic.

The complete integration of Check Point's management of firewall, VPN and traffic manager was both a hindrance and a useful feature. Useful was the product's ability to automatically deploy and activate policies, but issues that cropped up with licensing and firewall policies during deployment of bandwidth management policies were a hindrance.

FloodGate-1 4.1, Check Point Software Technologies, starts at $2,995, (800) 429-4391, 650-628-2000; fax (650) 654-4233. www.checkpoint.com

Send your comments on this article to Lori MacVittie at lmacvittie@nwc.com.