Recommendations for VPN end point appliances?

[Hewitt Tech]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Chris" <fj1200 at comcast.net>
To: <discuss at gnhlug.org>
Sent: Sunday, June 13, 2004 10:07 PM
Subject: Re: Recommendations for VPN end point appliances?


>
>
> bscott at ntisys.com wrote:
> >
> > On Sun, 13 Jun 2004, at 9:40pm, fj1200 at comcast.net wrote:
> > >> ... shared secrets went out in the 1980s ...
> > >
> > > Maybe, but SNMP V3 still uses it..........
> >
> >   That's hardly an endorsement.  SNMP's approach to security issues has
> > generally been to ignore them.  (SNMP = Security?  Not my problem!)  The
> > fact that SNMPv3 has any security at all is a huge advance.  Now you
want it
> > to be modern, too?
> >
>
> Yep, I totally agree, also SNMP is anything but simple, and why no-one
> has come out with something a lot more user friendly, I don't know,
> However, it keeps me employed, so I shouldn't complain too much. :)
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>
As usual, the technical discussion and recommendations have been really
useful. This has to be GNHLUG's value to it's members (aside from the
commaraderie and kidding ;^)).  Unfortunately for me, most of my clients are
Windows centric but I'm always looking for opportunities to have them
diversify into Open Source. Whenever they have security problems (which is
very common), I point out to them that if they had a less homogenous
environment they would have less exposure to these exploits. Also, you don't
necessarily need a Windows server to host Windows applications. Some of my
customers can't avoid it because their software vendors will only provide
support if they use Windows products but still Open Source solutions can be
quite cost effective under the right circumstances.

-Alex

P.S. I just attended a Microsoft Security seminar (an all day affair) where
the presenter concentrated almost entirely on Windows 2003 server as the
core solution to all security problems. He dropped one line that really
annoyed me. He stated that Windows Server 2003 performed a new
authentication protocol that would break most Samba network share setups. I
may be miss-remembering this because he was also describing the new Windows
XP SP2 release which he described as "a total re-write".