Wouldn’t be great if there was simply an appliance that we could just plug people into? OK, maybe not people in a literal sense, but rather their PCs. An appliance that would act as a guardian angel, one that would take care of them regardless of adding or subtracting new computers. One that would work with both Windows and OS X. Ya, like that would ever happen…right?

Well, it looks like there is such a device! Yesterday I came across a new network appliance that is both small and powerful. Aptly named The Spam Cube, this tiny little network add-on will literally stop spam, viruses and phishing attacks in their tracks when sent via email.

I’ll tell you right now, I have seen a number of software solutions out there over the years. Some of them are pretty darn good. Unfortunately none of them hold a candle to the power of simplicity offered by The Spam Cube.

Antivirus protection- You are able to provide up to four PCs complete virus protection from incoming infected emails. Bundled with either Norton Antivirus (yuck) or Mcafee Antivirus (much better). The cool part is that you are protected any attached PC, not just one unit.

Antispam protection- One of the biggest complaints that I used to get from parents was how to block the ‘pron’ spam in its tracks. With no subscription of any kind, you can use The Spam Cube to stop this trash in its tracks. Judging from the reported accuracy, this makes the purchase of the box for your home network a no-brainer.

Antiphishing protection- If you have ever known anyone to be a victim of identity theft, the purchase of an appliance is one great option in place of other software options like the Firefox plugins and toolbars for IE.

Final thoughts- I am not going to say this is the line of defense that makes sense for PC professionals such as us. But for John Doe PC user, it makes a whole lot of sense. Look, let’s take some things in to account here:

1) They are totally sold out. To me, this says something.
2) Initial reviews from both users and folks like us have been very positive!
3) The provided Flash movies and install CD not only works for Mac and Windows, it is the easiest install for anything that I have ever seen anywhere.

So where does this leave us? Well, if you are in the repair biz - you will likely either hate these boxes because of the reduction of repair calls or love the fact that you can sign up to be a reseller. I’m sold, what say you?

[tags]firefox,internet explorer,antivirus,protection,antispam,antiphishing,spam cube,toolbars[/tags]