SSL VPN vendor enKoo is expanding its line with a product that grants direct access over the Internet to network-based PCs.

Called Remote Desktop, the feature enhances the company's existing SSL remote access appliances that allow proxied access to network resources.

Remote Desktop enables users to take direct control of a PC or server, making it possible for a remote user to gain access to their desktop or for an administrator to reconfigure a server at another site.

This product is packaged as an appliance so a remote user authenticates to the machine and is presented with a menu of network-based machines to which they have access. They gain control of these machines via a client software installed on them beforehand.

For some users this can become a form of network-based remote access because it gives remote machines access to the same resources they have on the LAN. The difference is that resources are engaged by the LAN-based PC and only a display reaches the remote computer.

The company is also introducing Remote Server, which acts much as its previous SSL VPN appliances - providing access to e-mail and Web applications - but adds the ability to access Citrix servers as well as terminal servers.

Enkoo started off with the mission of offering low priced and perhaps not leading edge SSL gear. Other vendors offer more features, but at a higher price. These new offerings seem to say the company is sticking to its original plan, branching out slowly but only to those areas where it might attract customers from among businesses with tight budgets.

Remote Desktop and Remote Server both cost $995.

Tim Greene is senior editor at Network World.