Check Point Software has entered the consumer appliance market with a firewall targeted at residential broadband users.

The S-box, from Check Point subsidiary SofaWare, uses a cut-down version of Check Point's stateful inspection firewall technology and is been positioned as a secure and easy way for consumers to protect themselves against hacker attack.

Coming in at $299 the product is three times more expensive than cable/DSL routers with combined firewall capabilities from the likes of Linksys. It's questionable whether remote updates and having the best security engine are strong enough differentiators in the price-sensitive consumer market.

Check Point recommends the small office edition of its FireWall-1 product for small business users, who might get the most value from the integration with content filtering and email antivirus that feature with S-box.

S-box can be installed in five minutes even by non-technical users, according to Check Point, which hopes to sell it through its established resellers or via service providers. Check Point hopes to develop the technology so that it can be embedded in DSL and cable modems.