The Gatekeeper Card Pro from Yoggie is something of a mini marvel in that it's a self-contained security computer, complete with processor (Freescale i.MX31), 128MB of RAM and a further 128MB of flash storage, all squeezed onto a tiny ExpressCard.

Pop it into a notebook and it sits between the PC and any network connections, hosting some 13 security applications to provide protection against viruses, spam and other common threats. It keeps itself updated, requires only minimal management and, according to the blurb, eliminates the need for most, if not all, software security tools.

Installation takes a while but is fairly painless. Designed to plug into an ExpressCard/34 slot, the adapter is first plugged in and then the supporting drivers installed from CD, a process which took around 10 minutes on our test system.

Software for use with Windows XP and Vista is provided (32-bit only) the installation routine modifying any network connections to redirect traffic through the Yoggie card. So, take the card out and none of the connections will work. Plug it back in and they start working again.

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A separate management server is available for large scale corporate deployments. However, we tested in standalone mode where setup, monitoring and management are all done via a browser, connecting to a website hosted by the security-hardened Linux OS running on the card.

Three default security policies are available (low, medium and high), selected using a simple slider control, with facilities to further modify the supporting tools for those who know what they're doing. Passwords can also be used to protect the settings and stop security being bypassed, whether inadvertently or on purpose.

So what do you get? Well, quite a lot, starting with a stateful inspection firewall plus filters to screen out viruses, spam, phishing attempts and spyware. A series of proxies enables these to block malware carried in e-mail (POP3 and SMTP), Web (HTTP) and FTP traffic.

URL categorisation and content filtering tools are also built in, together with intrusion detection and prevention mechanisms. There's even a VPN client, with documentation on the Yoggie website detailing how this can be configured for use with leading gateways.

In use the card did what it was supposed to, but did get very hot inside our test notebook. And, of course, not all notebooks have ExpressCard slots, for which scenario USB versions of the technology are also available. You're also advised to remove or disable any local security tools, although as the Gatekeeper Card Pro only protects network connections you may want to keep local anti-virus protection, just in case.

Spam blocking wasn't as effective as we would have liked, the only option here being to tag suspect messages, with little customisation available for this and other tools, which could be an issue. Added to which the Gatekeeper Card can't filter all possible protocols. For example, we were able to download Eicar AV test files using an SSL encrypted HTTPS session without them being blocked. Local anti-virus software should/would have picked those up.

That said, the Yoggie device does provide protection against most common threats and, once fitted, can be left to get on with its job with little intervention. Should you need to check on what it's been up to the main status page features a dashboard showing the current risk level together with the number of recent firewall, malware and IDS/IPS events.

You can also display graphs for each of these categories, see what has triggered an alert and browse the logs maintained by the device. Updates are retrieved and applied automatically, with subscriptions available to extend those beyond the 12 months provided as standard.

A self-contained security mini-computer, the Yoggie Gatekeeper Card Pro fits inside an ExpressCard/34 slot to protect notebooks against a variety of common threats including viruses, spam and hackers. It's easy to install and updated automatically with simple Web-based management. It's effective, but the tools offer limited scope for customisation and it doesn't provide total protection.