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Cisco Systems has further solidified its role in the expanding market for remote LAN access with the announcement of CiscoRemote, a family of integrated client access applications for enterprise connectivity. CiscoRemote provides a complete remote computing solution for Windows users by offering an integrated suite of applications to provide seamless remote access.
CiscoRemote is not a new architecture, but consists of a delivery vehicle for the "best-of-breed" remote computing software with tuned defaults for Cisco products. With one simple installation, CiscoRemote supplies a complete remote access solution including VxD-based PPP client software supporting TCP/IP, IPX/SPX, and NetBIOS over IP, remote node acceleration (AirSoft, Inc. Powerburst), remote control software (Farallon's Timbuktu Pro), and TCP/IP applications for Internet access along with support for the Cisco Internetwork Operating System (Cisco IOS) software and other Cisco technology partners. The Internet access components consist of a Web browser (Netscape Communications), an e-mail client, and a family of Internet applications providing a news reader, drag-and-drop FTP, Telnet, TFTP, Ping, and other tools.
CiscoRemote significantly simplifies configuration and management of remote access by supporting the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), Internet (DNS) and NetBIOS name services, multiple security options, and scriptable client components. The products come preconfigured for transparent connections with Cisco dial-up access server products. Later additions to the product line will include remote node software for NetWare LAN access along with Windows 95, Windows NT, OS/2 and Macintosh versions of CiscoRemote.
Cisco first entered the remote access marketplace in 1992 and now offers a wide range of remote access hardware and software products for use over low-speed asynchronous, ISDN, and high-speed synchronous lines. During the last few years, remote access has taken on new meaning. Originally the province of technical computing, remote access now represents a necessity for many businesses and organizations.
The demand for connectivity to shared network resources and information from mobile and remote sites is the result of a number of factors. To compete in today's global markets, companies are being forced to become more efficient. Major benefits can result from connecting branch offices, divisions, and even mobile workers into wide-area networks for sharing information quickly. Many companies allow and even encourage workers to telecommute, that is, work from home a few days a week. Telecommuting can offer companies benefits by saving expensive central office space, reducing stress on employees who would otherwise be snarled in traffic, and adjusting to personal demands on staff. The number of highly skilled mobile workers desiring remote LAN access is also growing. Coincident with these trends has been a large increase in the desire for Internet connectivity to access Internet e-mail and news and browse World Wide Web sites.
In the past, mobile and remote users were offered simple file transfer solutions using products like LapLink. Then products were introduced for remote control (PC Anywhere, Timbuktu, Carbon Copy, and Reachout, for example) with which a remote computer connected over a dial-up line would control a desktop machine at the central site. Remote control allowed distant users to run most PC application programs remotely. Now the market is moving to remote node software where the mobile user merely appears as another network node on the central LAN, albeit with a slower connection.
Most companies that currently offer remote access are forced to supply users with a collection of diverse software from a number of vendors. A typical PC user would likely need a network protocol stack supporting the Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) for remote access; a sophisticated tool for dialing, handling modem connections, and scripting logins; e-mail software tailored for use over slow dial-up links; a Web browser and other TCP/IP applications (Telnet and Ping, for example); file transfer capabilities; and remote control software. This somewhat disparate set of software components grew out of a need to provide users with a complete combination of connectivity and applications designed for remote access.
Configuration and management of these diverse software components causes major headaches for network managers and users alike. Problems are most acute for PC-based remote users because of the large number of vendors offering TCP/IP stacks, remote access software, and network applications for DOS and Windows. Only this past summer with the release of Windows 95 and OS/2 Warp Connect have Microsoft and IBM included the low-level network software (a TCP/IP stack supporting PPP) required for remote access. Successfully configuring all of these software components from different vendors is no small feat.
CiscoRemote offers an innovative solution for remote LAN access, particularly for sites already using Cisco hardware products. In a single package, a user or LAN administrator is now offered a complete suite of components and applications for remote access with features for enhanced performance (remote acceleration and remote control software). The components offered in the CiscoRemote client package for Windows have been integrated for easy installation and seamless interaction. The value added over the individual components is in the integration and tuning provided by Cisco, particularly for use with Cisco dial-up access servers. Cisco is ideally suited to offer a multiprotocol remote access solution based on its wide experience supporting heterogeneous networking and a multitude of networking standards, protocols, and vendors in its routers, LAN and ATM switches, dial-up servers, and network management software.
The primary components that make up CiscoRemote include the following:
For use with Windows 3.1 and Windows for Workgroups, CiscoRemote includes a high-performance VxD-based implementation of PPP based on TCP Pro from Network TeleSystems. This PPP component simultaneously supports remote connections using TCP/IP, IPX/SPX, and NetBIOS over IP. The PPP software supports a variety of security options including Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol (CHAP) and Password Authentication Protocol (PAP) protocols. Other security options supported include Cisco's TACACS+ (Terminal Access Control Access Control System), token cards from Security Dynamics (SecureID) and Enigma Logic, Kerberos, and Radius (Livingston). Using Cisco's TACACS+, which is incorporated in Cisco's dial-up servers, a user can be authenticated using any of the security options noted above.
The CiscoRemote package includes a VxD-based TCP/IP stack supporting DHCP to simplify network management. DHCP uses the most recent Internet developments for managing IP addressing and remote users. In addition to the static allocation of IP addresses and network configuration, DHCP supports the concept of limited-term leases for IP addresses that fits in well with the challenges posed by mobile users. To further facilitate managing remote users, a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) agent is built into the TCP/IP stack supporting MIB I, MIB II, and host extensions. Designed for convenient integration with Windows for Workgroups (WFW), many of the CiscoRemote parameters can be directly configured from the WFW Network software menus.
TCP/IP applications provided in CiscoRemote include the Netscape Web browser (Netscape Communications), a news reader, drag-and-drop FTP and TFTP clients, Telnet, and TN3270 clients, an LPR client for remote fax and printing, Ping, a NetBIOS utility, and a console application for configuration, monitoring, and management. The Netscape browser was specifically selected as a best-of-breed application that supports the most recent Web (HTTP, HTML, and URL draft standards), Gopher, FTP, Telnet, network news, and SMTP mail protocols. A separate Internet e-mail client is also included that supports the Simple Message Transfer Protocol (SMTP), the Post Office Protocol (POP), and the latest Multimedia Internet Mail Extensions (MIME).
The CiscoRemote client includes patent-pending technology based on AirSoft's Powerburst for accelerating network LAN access for remote node users. This technology addresses network file access performance problems over remote links through a combination of advanced client-side caching, read ahead, and synchronization with a Powerburst server located somewhere directly on the LAN. Powerburst accelerates a wide range of applications, including e-mail products such as Lotus cc:Mail and Microsoft Mail, PC database file access, spreadsheets, and word processors.
Powerburst achieves its performance gains by improving the efficiency of communications over the link. As a result, much more information can be exchanged in fewer data packets, providing a dramatic speedup in application performance. The Powerburst technology uses redundancy-eliminating algorithms to maximize efficiencies in modern network applications. Advanced caching on the client combined with file synchronization using a Powerburst server on the LAN eliminates unnecessary packet transfers, sending only those portions of files that have changed. The Powerburst client also automatically performs read-ahead when the remote line is idle. Benchmarks with popular PC applications demonstrate a doubling of performance using these remote node acceleration techniques.
The CiscoRemote client includes remote control software (Timbuktu Pro) from Farallon that works over TCP/IP and IPX. While the use of remote node connections is growing, a number of desktop applications still depend on remote control software for reasonable performance over dial-up links. The integration of remote node and remote control provides remote users with the ideal tools for complete remote access. Using remote control over a remote node connection, a distant or mobile user can control and run programs on a host desktop computer located on the LAN. Only keystrokes and screen updates need to be passed over the remote link. Applications that show major benefits using remote control tend to be PC databases, some e-mail software, and other PC-based programs that access large files directly. Using patented technology, the Timbuktu Pro software supplied with CiscoRemote is truly unique, being the only software in this category that allows a PC user to control a PC or Macintosh computer and vice versa.
Remote Control Functions:
The first release of CiscoRemote will support Windows 3.x and Windows for Workgroup. Cisco plans to continually enhance and add to the CiscoRemote family of products over time to incorporate the latest features and applications useful for both LAN and remote access. Later versions of CiscoRemote will be offered for Windows 95 and NT OS/2 and Macintosh users1.
A single-user CiscoRemote starter kit will be bundled with Cisco's dial-up access servers. The product will be made available on diskette for easy individual installation on laptop computers and on CD-ROM for network installs. The CD-ROM version will also include a complete set of CiscoRemote manuals stored online to simplify administration.
All of the components integrated into CiscoRemote would cost well over a thousand dollars if purchased separately. Cisco offers the CiscoRemote client for Windows for less than $200 in single-quantity pricing.
Posted: Fri Mar 5 02:34:22 PST 1999
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