Headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, but with offices around the world, NetScreen Technologies Inc. has become an industry leader in Firewall/VPN hardware. The company focuses on simplifying VPN and routing technology by using a non-CPU intensive hardware solution rather than a resource-heavy software solution.

The company's products are targeted towards businesses of all sizes. Netscreen's hardware selections vary from very small scale to enterprise performance, while the company's management software is targeted at service providers and enterprises.

There are three different components to Netscreen's VPN offering. The first is the hardware, which consists of several different switches. The top of the line is the NetScreen-1000, which combines firewall and VPN service with gigabit performance. It handles up to 25,000 IP tunnels, making it perfect for large enterprises with lots of remote users.

Several other routers follow with scaled-down features. The NetScreen-5XP, for example, is perfect for small businesses that are using workgroups. The NetScreen-500, on the other hand, is designed for larger companies with remote users.

The second offering is the network manager. There are two management tools available, both of which are targeted towards service providers and large enterprises: the first, the NetScreen-Global Pro, is VPN-specific; it is designed for managing VPNs using drag-and-drop management. The second, the NetScreen-Global Manager, is an overarching product used for managing large networks with multiple sites.

The third offering NetScreen offers is the client. Known as NetScreen-Remote, it uses IPSec security and allows remote users to initiate VPN connections with the corporate network.

NetScreen can be contacted by email at [email protected], or by telephone at 1-800-638-8296. Additional contact information for local offices can be found on the Web site.