Net6 looks to enabling remote collaboration

Net6 is expanding its Internet remote access gear to include application collaboration and it eventually plans to expand further into conferencing.

The company’s Hybrid-VPN Gateway connects remote users to corporate networks over the Internet, and with Version 5.0 of its software, the company has added remote control that can also be used for collaboration.

So if a user is logged on to an HVPN Gateway box, they can see the names of all the other users logged on and can invite them to share their desktop. If the other user accepts, the requesting user gains control of that desktop. This control can be used to correct problems on the controlled machine, thereby making it useful as a help desk tool. It also can be used as a way for both users to simultaneously work on the same document and collaborate.

While the company has made no announcements about it, it plans in a later release of its HVPN software to link IP voice connections among users logged on to an HVPN appliance. The device could then support some of the features of a PBX, as well as voice mail and voice conferences by bringing together more than two users. Eventually, the technology could be extended beyond PCs with softphones to IP phones, PDAs and laptops with wireless capabilities.

Net6 requires that remote machines connecting to its HVPN Gateway have HVPN clients running on them, and the company is looking for its clients to be embedded in wireless devices. Remember, the company started out making software that shrinks down the presentation of applications to make them readable on the tiny screens of handheld devices, so it is no stranger to this embedded technology.

Granted this is a relatively young company that is just coming into the Internet remote access field, but it has a unique and broad perspective on what the possibilities are for the technology. It’s worth keeping an eye on them just to enjoy the creativity of their vision. If their ideas pan out, all the better.