Funk Software ships steel-belted radius for NetWare.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 27, 1997--

First Centralized Dial-In User Authentication Solution for

Enterprise Environments

Steel-Belted Radius for Windows NT to Ship Within 30 Days

Significantly eases administration of dial-in and firewall users

First RADIUS server to be available in both NetWare and NT versions

Funk Software, Inc. this week began shipping Steel-Belted Radius for NetWare, a new product based on the Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS) standard, and announced a Windows NT version that will ship within 30 days. Steel-Belted Radius lets network managers centralize the authentication, authorization, and accounting of all dial-in users, greatly reducing their administrative burden and enhancing the security on their networks. Steel-Belted Radius is the only RADIUS server to be available for both Novell NetWare and Windows NT environments.

"As more and more users access enterprise LANs, from dial-up connections or through Internet firewalls, the burden associated with managing these users has become staggering," said Cimarron Boozer, vice president of product marketing at Funk Software. "Steel-Belted Radius significantly reduces the amount of time required to administer these users, and virtually eliminates the possibility of a security breach due to careless network management. Plus, we've incorporated several powerful features into Steel-Belted Radius including out-of-the-box support for dictionaries for a wide variety of RADIUS-compliant devices, an easy-to-use Windows interface, techniques such as Attribute Profiles that make it simple to set up and manage multiple users and groups of users, and support for both NetWare and NT that make it the ideal solution for the busy network manager in enterprise environments."

"Steel-Belted Radius has been in use on my network since it was in beta," said Manny Gonzales, Senior Programmer Analyst at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. "It authenticates every user that dials into our Bay Networks Remote Annex server against information in my NetWare Bindery. If you're not an authorized NetWare user, you won't gain access to my network. What I like best about Steel-Belted Radius is that its designed to do one thing manage the authentication of remote users and it does it very well. There should be more programs like it."

Steel-Belted Radius runs on either a Novell NetWare file server (as a NetWare Loadable Module), or on a Windows NT server or workstation (as an NT service), and processes authentication requests from any RADIUS-compliant remote access server, firewall, or router on the network. Steel-Belted Radius performs the authentication, and either grants or denies access to the LAN.

Steel-Belted Radius authenticates remote users against a central database that is either native to the LAN operating environment (NetWare Bindery or NDS, or Windows NT Domains or Hosts), or one of a network managers own creation. This eliminates the need to administer separate user databases possibly recreating hundreds of entries across multiple remote access servers. Steel-Belted Radius also lets network managers utilize RADIUS-compliant remote access servers from a variety of vendors while maintaining a common security model and administrative interface.

PRODUCT HIGHLIGHTS

Steel-Belted Radius features include:

- Full compliance with the IETF Working Draft for Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS), including full support for PAP and CHAP authentication, MD5 shared secret technology, and RADIUS accounting.

- Pass-through authentication to NetWare or Windows NT. Most RADIUS implementations are based on a fixed database, often a flat ASCII file. While Steel-Belted Radius lets you create a native database using a high-speed database engine, it also is unique in that it provides pass-through authentication to either NetWare or Windows Networking. Steel-Belted Radius for NetWare supports full Bindery user and group, or NetWare Directory Services (NDS) user, group and context authentication. Steel-Belted Radius for NT supports Domain user and group, and Host-based user and group authentication. You can also combine native authentication with the pass-through authentication, and select the order in which different authentications are attempted.

- Preconfigured dictionaries for most popular remote access servers and firewalls. Each dictionary describes the vendor-specific extensions to the RADIUS standard used by particular brands of remote access server. This makes it quick and easy to utilize Steel-Belted Radius with a wide variety of remote access equipment.

- Support for mixed environment of remote access servers. Many RADIUS solutions only support a single vendors remote access server, or cant process conflicting or ambiguous requests from different brands of remote access server simultaneously. Steel-Belted Radius, on the other hand, speaks the language of whichever remote access server is sending the authentication request, based on its associated dictionary. This allows Steel-Belted Radius to support a heterogeneous environment that includes Ascend, Cisco, Shiva, Bay Networks and any other RADIUS-compliant remote access server, firewall, or router.

- Simple administration from Windows graphical interface. Unlike the typical RADIUS product that can only be administered via arcane text files, Steel-Belted Radius can be administered from any Windows 3.1, 95 or NT workstation on the network. Administrative security is enforced naturally via NetWare or NT authentication.

- One-step administration of groups and users. Steel-Belted Radius includes a powerful Attribute Profile feature that lets an administrator pre-define named sets of attributes and then apply any set to any user. Attribute Profiles -- similar to style sheets in word processors -- allow data to be entered once for any user, and allow global changes to be made easily.

- Accounting. Steel-Belted Radius provides both a real-time current status display and historical logs of all dial-in activity to further enhance security, tracking, and documentation. All accounting data can be imported to popular spreadsheet and database programs.

- Proxy RADIUS and roaming. Steel-Belted Radius makes it easy for large enterprises to network their RADIUS servers for decentralized management. Using Proxy RADIUS, any Steel-Belted Radius server can be configured to pass authentication requests to another RADIUS server which may have the appropriate database to perform authentication. For example, if john@france logs in to a corporate server in the US, the authentication request would automatically be sent to the RADIUS server in France for local authentication. With roaming, a network of RADIUS servers can be set up which allows forwarding to any number of other RADIUS servers using TCP/IP DNS services, so that new RADIUS servers can be added in a decentralized and flexible fashion.

- Complete on-line help provides information on product operation and on configuring third-party remote access servers.

PRICING AND AVAILABILITY

Steel-Belted Radius for NetWare is available immediately. Steel-Belted Radius for Windows NT will be available within 30 days. Each product costs $4,000 per copy, and supports any number of users and remote access servers.

Steel-Belted Radius is available from a network of authorized Funk Software resellers, including Stream International and SoftMart, from major distributors including Ingram Micro, Merisel, and Tech Data, and directly from Funk Software. Steel-Belted Radius is available outside the US through a worldwide network of distributors.

Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Funk Software is a key developer of remote access and LAN-based communications software. WanderLink lets an existing NetWare file server act as a powerful, highly secure remote access gateway to the LAN. Proxy remote control software lets help desk personnel and network managers fully view and operate PCs on the network from their own desktops. WanderLink, Proxy, and Steel-Belted Radius are in use at numerous Fortune 500 corporations and organizations, as well as multinational organizations worldwide.

CONTACT: Funk Software, Inc.

Janet Lill

Marketing Communications Manager

617/497-6339

http://www.funk.com

or

Rothenberg Communications

Mike Rothenberg

703/820-1270