Dlink DSD-150 Security Appliance

D-Link DSD-150 - SECURESPOT appliance
has been a great network security device for my home network. There is no longer a need to install full blown antivirus software, personal firewall, content filtering, and etc. You noticed above I stated full blown antivirus software, this is due to a thin client still needed for some of the features like antivirus. The thin client takes much less computer resources than what would be needed if running those memory and processor hog security suite packages. I admit the
D-Link DSD-150
was a little buggy at first but with recent updates it has improved a bunch! A major improvement is the virus engine is now McAfee.

The web content filter will help keep the honest, honest and protect your kids eyes for seeing something they should not. You have the option to enable password override in case you are on the machine and really need to bypass the content filter. I use this alot when a site is being blocked from my kids and may be falsely blocked. I have to say 99% of the time it is blocked for a good reason. I hate those online game sites that look fun and innocent but click through and you find some trashy videos!!

You can create profiles for each computer or user and have different protection rules for each. For example my machine does not block any software from being downloaded. Each child in my house has a computer profile that does enforce blocking of certain file extensions like .exe. This prevents any downloads of malicious software to their machines that could damage the operating system. You know how kids can be!

There is a scheduling feature to block web surfing access at certain times of the day. This is great if you need to prevent the kids from playing on the internet while doing homework or if they need to be grounded from surfing.

Host Intrusion Detection is also integrated and it prevents inbound or outbound communication to and from applications loaded on your computer. This is something windows XP firewall will NOT do. It only blocks inbound communication. Given a scenario where some malicious software is downloaded onto your computer and records all account and password information used and sends it to some internet site for horrible use the
D-Link DSD-150 would alert you of this outbound communication.

Identity protection is a big plus! You configure the device to store private data like credit card numbers, paypal account info, etc and which web sites are allowed to access this data

This feature within SecureSpot is a must when keeping your family members from downloading unwanted files. Executables could be downloaded and launched without someone knowing it which could be a trojan, key logger, etc. With the growing number of illegal copying of movies and music from the web, this feature is a must! It is not the child that will get fined a huge fee per illegal download, it is YOU the parent! This feature will only block downloads via standard web browser communication. For other communication/download methods (ie Torrent clients) the Firewall feature will block this.

**One thing to watch with this feature.**
When an application like Halo Combat Evolved connects to central server for updates and needs to download them you receive an unfriendly microsoft access denied message stating you need admin rights. It took me a while to figure out why I was being denied since I knew I had the permissions. Sometimes I set these security policies and forget about them. But I think in the future it would be nice if SecureSpot could provide a custom message with the SecureSpot logo.

Having issues with Skype and
D-Link DSD-150? Issues being cannot login or register a new account. Most likely the issue is with the built in firewall blocking the needed ports. To rememdy this issue launch the Web Control Center, login, and select software selections. Now depending on if you have defined user or computer profiles you can leave the "These settings apply to" as the default of "Local Network" Now scroll down and uncheck Sykpe. Press the save button and click ok. For some reason when I click ok the screen never returned but I did verify the settings did take, to be 100% sure I restarted my
D-Link DSD-150 appliance.

There is currently an issue with firmware 2.0 of the Dlink DSD-150 security appliance blocking Vonage incoming and outgoing udp ports 10000-20000 when using the built-in firewall vonage port template which is recommended by the vendor.

Checking or unchecking the port template makes no difference and I have verified the behavior when viewing the dsd-150 system logs. The ports are never defined as allowed. This does cause inbound calls to be forwarded directly to voicemail. The phone never rings!

Here is the call being dropped in the log:
Dropped incoming UDP packet from 216.115.30.92:10000.

Instead of relying on the port template add a manual port range of 10000 to 20000 for the udp allowed list.

Not sure how many use this device but wanted to provide a heads up for anyone. This issue has been reported to Dlink.

I have been running the Secure Spot client 2.0.0 for a while now. Dlink now provides version 2.0.1. I am not one that goes and upgrades without reason. I just recently discovered the Dlink DSD-150 Secure Spot client version 2.0.1 provides anti-spyware detection and removal along with the antivirus engine. I am very happy with this and decided to upgrade all 4 of my thin clients.

A good tip for anyone performing this upgrade. Make note of any allowed popup sites because the upgrade will remove them from the list. All applications will be removed from the intrusion detection list as well. Not a huge deal since network activity from each application will be detected and the thin client will notify you if you want to allow or dis-allow the behavior.

What is the default username and password for the dsd-150? I hear this question asked alot. The default password for the sentinel appliance is completely blank and the username is "admin". I HIGHLY recommend you change the default password with a password that is atleast 8 characters long and also the user name. To perform this step access the appliance web address by entering the following in your browser http://192.168.229.61/.

Due to some fraudalent activity in my credit card, I decided to look more into the identity protection feaure to alert me when my credit card or other PII (Personal Identity Information) being posted to unwanted websites. What I found was IE works but Firefox never intercepts the PII being submitted. I have reported this with Dlink support. I will post an update once received.

***Update***
SecureSpot thin client only works with IE browser currently.

If you have thought twice about purchasing the Dlink DSD-150 because not wanting to add an additonal layer and complexity to your home network than all issues are over. BSecure and Dlink have worked hard to provide a fully integrated solution in the DIR-625 broadband router. I was one of the select few of Beta testers for this major improvement. The management interface has become very intuitive and performs quite well. No more frustration of trying to track down issues, SecureSpot and router logs are in one common location.

Watch out in the coming months as the DIR-615 and DIR-655 firmware will provide this slick integration as well.

More to come about this topic in the future....