Low-cost Secure Sockets Layer remote access vendor enKoo has boosted the capabilities of its appliances so they now support access to Web applications.

While this still leaves enKoo lagging behind the most sophisticated SSL remote access vendors, the boost does make its gear more useful to the low-end customers it's shooting for.

Previously, the company's enKoo 1000 and enKoo 2000 boxes supported file access and access to e-mail via standard Web browsers. With the addition of a software agent on corporate desktops, remote users can also access these desktops. This set of features provides many important remote access needs for small businesses.

The upgrade enables remote users to access any Web applications via an enKoo box. The enKoo appliances sit behind corporate firewalls and are accessed via SSL from remote Web browsers that use those firewall ports that are commonly left open for secure Web access. Traffic is tunneled over the Internet to the enKoo devices, which proxy requests to the appropriate LAN machines. 

Other SSL remote access vendors have supported these functions, in some cases for years, and have augmented them with strong authentication, scans of remote machines for proper settings and security measures to wipe away traces of secure sessions from remote machines, among other things. These are clearly good features to have.

The difference is price. EnKoo devices in some cases cost a quarter of the more complex products. For some companies whose remote access needs can be filled by enKoo appliances, these savings may be attractive enough to forego more features.

Tim Greene is senior editor at Network World.