McAfee scored well in all criteria, but readers particularly appreciate its service and support, as well as its effectiveness and alerting and reporting capabilities.

McAfee, which became an instant player in the nascent network IPS arena when it acquired IntruVert in 2003, offers a line of seven IntruShield appliances, from branch office models to core workhorses that advertise 2 Gbps throughput (with a multi-gig box due out this year) and up to 1 million concurrent connections.

Perhaps IntruShield's greatest value comes in its integration with other McAfee security products under its central management platform, e-Policy Orchestrator (ePO), which is so popular it is often cited as a prime reason for McAfee keeping and building up business. For example, IntruShield can be paired with Foundstone vulnerability management to assess the risk of a particular attack actually compromising critical network assets.