AppGate's alternative to IPSec VPN
 
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More and more alternatives to IPSec VPNs are cropping up for corporations that want to establish secure remote access connections over the Internet, and here is a brief description of one such alternative from a company called AppGate.
AppGate (www.appgate.com/) enables you to connect securely to your corporate sites over the Internet using any Internet connected computer with a browser that supports the standard secure shell, the highly regarded authentication and encryption technology that runs at the application layer.
AppGate sells a server called PowerBox that protects central corporate networks and three software clients that enable remote users to establish secure links with a power box and then access corporate network resources.
One of these Java clients is an applet that can be downloaded to any remote computer with a browser that has Java support. So if you are at a customer site within another corporation's network, you could borrow an Internet-connected PC and create a secure, encrypted link back to headquarters. To do so, you would connect to the Web server on the PowerBox via browser, authenticate yourself successfully and the server sends you the applet. You are set to go.
The setup supports any client-server application and gets around the problems of translating private IP addresses to public IP addresses without fouling up the secure link. It also gets around the problem of distributing and maintaining remote clients.
For power users, AppGate does offer a full client that enables connecting to multiple PowerBoxes at the same time. It also offers a graphical interface with icons for the applications that are available through remote connections. You just click on the icon you want and the software makes the connection automatically. The full client also enables use of public-key infrastructure for authentication.
AppGate acknowledges that IPSec is still the best way to go if you want to use the Internet but create a secure link between sites.
A PowerBox with enough horsepower to support 50 simultaneous client sessions costs $10,000. You can add more processing power or buy the larger model to support up to 1,000 sessions.
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Tim Greene is a senior editor at Network World, covering virtual private networking gear, remote access, core switching and local phone companies. You can reach him at tgreene@nww.com.
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