Trapeze touts easy, secure pass for guest wireless users

Product Test and Buyer's Guide This newsletter is sponsored by Secure Computing Webinar: Securing up network access Learn how token-based, one-time password authentication systems can help enterprises reduce business risk, better comply with regulations, are easy to manage and most importantly keep networks secure. Tune in to this webinar. Product Test and Buyer's Guide, 09/13/07 By Christine Burns The pitch is that your receptionist can hand out temporary passes for wireless network access without IT involvement, and this is supposed to increase the security of your WLAN deployment. In a news story this week, Senior Editor John Cox outlines Trapeze Networks’ efforts to streamline the process of letting authorized guest users onto the corporate WLAN with new software the company calls SmartPass. As the story goes, the point of the software – which runs on a central server as opposed to being hosted on a Trapeze controller and has its own database for registering, authenticating and tracking guest access – is intended to make it easier to quickly create and administer guest accounts for thousands of users. The interface is specifically designed for non-technical folks. Cox writes: “Working with the SmartPass user interface, a receptionist types in the requested information and issues to the guest a username/password combination. When guests log in to the WLAN with this combination, the SmartPass server authenticates them and confirms that they are authorized to access the network at that time. Network World Buyer's Guides Find the right products for your enterprise - fast. With seven categories - security, storage, convergence and VoIP, network infrastructure, network applications, wireless and LAN/WAN management - you can quickly pinpoint the hardware or software you need. With the side-by-side comparison tool you can evaluate product features and make the best purchase decisions for your enterprise. Click here to go to the Buyer's Guides now. “Network administrators can access the SmartPass server to see detailed information about wireless guests, and review details of the accounts. Companies can create user accounts in bulk, taking a list of several hundred names, for example, importing it into SmartPass, and creating the accounts ahead of time.” Trapeze offers a free 30-day trial of SmartPass. Pricing starts at $595 for as many as 50 guest users; $1,990 for as many as 10,000. If you’re not convinced by the Trapeze argument and need to research what your options are in the WLAN Security realm, please point your browser in the direction of the Network World Buyer’s Guide on the topic. In this Buyer’s Guide listing you can parse detailed product data on 18 products from over a dozen vendors to help you find a fit for your network.

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Contact the author: Christine Burns is the Executive Editor of Testing. She can be reached at cburns@nww.com This newsletter is sponsored by Secure Computing Webinar: Securing up network access Learn how token-based, one-time password authentication systems can help enterprises reduce business risk, better comply with regulations, are easy to manage and most importantly keep networks secure. Tune in to this webinar. BONUS FEATURE IT PRODUCT RESEARCH AT YOUR FINGERTIPS Get detailed information on thousands of products, conduct side-by-side comparisons and read product test and review results with Network World’s IT Buyer’s Guides. Find the best solution faster than ever with over 100 distinct categories across the security, storage, management, wireless, infrastructure and convergence markets. Click here for details. PRINT SUBSCRIPTIONS AVAILABLE You've got the technology snapshot of your choice delivered to your inbox each day. Extend your knowledge with a print subscription to the Network World newsweekly, Apply here today. International subscribers, click here. SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES To subscribe or unsubscribe to any Network World newsletter, change your e-mail address or contact us, click here. This message was sent to: security.world@gmail.com. Please use this address when modifying your subscription. Advertising information: Write to Associate Publisher Online Susan Cardoza Network World, Inc., 118 Turnpike Road, Southborough, MA 01772 Copyright Network World, Inc., 2007