What is a Residential Gateway?

In the simplest of terms, today’s residential gateway is a device that connects the home or small office network to the Internet.

Basic Characteristics of a residential gateway are:

• Not dependant on a PC

• Embedded hubbing and routing

• High speed connection to the Internet

• Durability (always on)

• Security

• Ability to support services

There are several factors driving the adoptions of residential gateways in the home and small office:

• Proliferation of broadband Internet access

• Multi-PC households & offices

• Smart appliances

• Delivery of multiple services

The Internet is fast becoming a mandatory utility that people are provisioning for their homes and offices. It's as important as electricity, water, gas and telephone service to the operation of families and businesses.

Why Do People Need a Residential Gateway?

Today’s residential gateways provide three major benefits:

Security - Homes and small offices accessing the Internet via broadband connections are “always-on”.  This makes computers and the data on them constantly vulnerable to attack and in need of protection. The firewalls built into residential gateways provide this protection.

Networking – Computers, Internet Appliances, PDA’s and digital entertainment products need access to the Internet and each other to realize their full functionality.  Residential gateways make connecting different devices with different networking media easy and affordable.

Control -Content coming into the network from the Internet needs to be managed.  Children need protection from inappropriate material and management needs assurance that workers are spending their time on the Internet doing work related activities.  Residential gateways can provide the filter point for this control.

iPAQ Connection Point

Compaq has designed the iPAQ Connection Point to provide security, networking and control for the home and small office.  It is easily installable by the average user with an html-based wizard that guides you through the setup process.  It has unparalleled Internet security with a built-in dynamic stateful packet inspection firewall created by WatchGuardÒ Technologies, Inc.  iPAQ Connection Point supports both broadband and dial-up connections to the Internet.  It also provides wireless, phoneline, and Ethernet networking inside the home or office.  And finally, iPAQ Connection Point has the ability to provide additional services like website filtering and blocking.