* Aventail's ST2+
Editor’s Note : On Dec. 4, this newsletter will shift its focus from VPNs to network access control. NAC is an emerging network security architecture that starts with securing endpoints before they connect to networks and extends to monitoring and controlling their activity after they have been admitted. There are working NAC products today, but most vendors committed to NAC are still fleshing out their products, which makes it an area that warrants a newsletter of its own. Along with the shift in focus comes a new name: the Network Access Control Newsletter. We hope you find it useful. Network World and networkworld.com will continue to cover VPNs as part of our regular news coverage. Thanks for reading.
Aventail is introducing new tools that make it easier to provision its SSL VPN gear and to get reports out of its log information.
With a new software release called ST2+, the company is adding to its endpoint-checking capabilities. Rather than manually keying in executables and registry values to check what version of antivirus software a computer has installed, customers can enter the information via a graphical interface.
The tool lists hundreds of antivirus, antispyware and firewall products and versions. To set which ones should be looked for when machines are scanned, customers select them via check boxes.
Another tool contains report templates that sort through log entries to extract data needed to create reports on user activity, such as when they logged on, how long their session lasted and what resources they tapped. Before, customers had to sort through the log data on their own or use third-party software to sort it for them.
The software supports a virtual keyboard designed to thwart key loggers. So when remote users are asked to type in their password they use their mouse to hit keys on a keyboard displayed on their computer screen.
For customers who use Active Directory to assign policies to user groups, the software now supports subgroups. So for example, the administrative subgroup of the sales group can be assigned a policy directly rather than designating the entire sales group and then denying rules to some of them one by one to pare the group down to the desired subgroup.
The ST2+ software supports Internet Explorer v. 7.0. Because IE7 changes the way it installs software agents on the browser, though, Aventail had to work with Microsoft to enable Aventail agents to install on IE7.
None of these new features rises to the level of making or breaking a buying decision, but they are conveniences that should fall into the mix when evaluating SSL VPN gear for ease of use.
