3Com Corp plans to unveil key enhancements to its remote-access server line designed to facilitate the convergence of corporate and public networks into virtual private networks, reports InfoWorld. Chief among announcements will be the immediate availability of the PPTP Point to Point Tunnelling Protocol on 3Com AccessBuilder 4000, 5000, and 8000 remote-access servers. The protocol provides a way of tunneling secure network traffic across IP networks. They enable companies to use the Internet as a virtual private network. The importance of the tunneling addition is that it may help to boost the Internet as a secure company remote-access system, compared with managed remote-access services from telecoms carriers. Although the Internet is a less expensive option it has so far been unable to convince corporates that it is secure enough for internal corporate information. PPTP was developed by the PPTP Forum, which comprises 3Com and four other companies. One member Microsoft Corp delivered PPTP support in Windows NT 4.0 late last year. 3Com is also set to announce additional security functions on its products, including authentication and authorization for virtual private networks, and network interfaces such as ISDN primary-rate for the 5000 model.
