Network security appliance

A system comprising:

• a plurality of nodes, each node of the plurality of nodes associated with one or more of a plurality of networked devices, wherein each node receives encrypted configuration data from a management server from packets addressed to the one or more of the plurality of networked devices, and transparently bridges the one or more associated networked devices to a network and provides management of data communications traversing to and from the one or more associated networked devices and other devices in the network based upon security profiles in the configuration data associated with attributes of the one or more associated networked devices;
• wherein the plurality of nodes are configured to communicate with the management server by utilizing an address of one of the associated networked devices, and wherein the plurality of nodes are configured to send a status message to the management server utilizing address information of an associated networked device as an originating address of the status message.