The inventive methodology provides an integrated plug and play solution designed to protect home networks against spam, phishing emails, viruses, spyware as well as other similar threats. The described content filtering appliance can be used for processing of web and email traffic implemented and can be deployed as a stand-alone appliance. In one implementation, the content processing appliance utilizes backend content filtering provided by a remote scanning service accessed via a network. The system employs network level analysis and translation of content and executes various procedures to handle the network traffic. In an embodiment of the invention, the appliance is provided with an automatic remote updating capability, wherein the software and data used by the appliance can be updated remotely via a network. Finally, the appliance may also implement parental controls.