Getting through pesky NATs

Those that have tried videoconferencing (or even audio) over the public Internet can attest to the pain of dealing with firewalls and NAT setups. Many videoconferencing applications use non-standard TCP ports (i.e. port 80 used by HTTP traffic) and most firewalls block all but the most common ports. So you can see the problem. VCON is hoping to help users navigate the trick firewall/NAT waters with its new SecureConnect family of products, which features the Application Level Gateway (ALG) Proxy Server and the Advanced Encryption Server. ALG Proxy deals with the firewall/NAT issue by tunneling through the firewall in a secure manner. The Advanced Encryption Server does just what the name implies, encrypts conferences using DES, Triple DES or AES encryption standards. If you don't want someone "tapping" your call, you better use encryption. Both products are scheduled to ship some time in the third quarter.