Internet Expo holds gems for Solaris users E-mail switch, Web management tools, and firewall for Sun systems among the multitude of NT offerings

March  1997

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San Jose, CA (February 26, 1997) -- While Windows users were the primary benefactors of new product releases at the recent Internet Expo conference here, Solaris users did have some important take-aways, including a mail offering from Wingra Technologies Inc., Web analysis tools from IQ Software, and firewall software from ON Technology.

Connecting Solaris to other e-mail systems
Wingra released a Solaris version of its Missive e-mail switch that allows systems managers to add, remove, combine, and change e-mail systems. The package provides an X.500 central direction that automatically synchronizes a variety of e-mail systems, including SMTP/MIME, Lotus Notes and cc:Mail, Digital Equipment Corp.'s VMSmail and Message Router, Novel's MHS and gMHS, Microsoft Mail, X.400, and IBM PROFS (Office Version). A message that comes in from any of these mail systems can be automatically read by the Solaris system.

Essentially, Missive can read and write messages without being concerned with what kind of e-mail system is sending the message. The package supports Web-based access and management standards and can be used with Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer. The Solaris release is a port of Wingra's AIX version.

List price depends on the number of e-mail systems being connected, but a typical installation with two internal e-mail systems and a connection to the Internet costs a little more than $50,000; additional e-mail "channels," the modules that connect e-mail systems together, list from $7,500 to $10,000. The package currently is in beta with shipments due in April. Users who want to become part of the beta program can link to the appropriate page from the Resources section at the end of this article.

Raising your system's IQ
IQ Software unveiled IQ/Objects Ver. 6.0, a decision-support application that adds ad hoc query and database reporting capabilities using a drop-and-drag approach.

Users can copy a portion of their database into what the company calls a Personal Data Mart and then perform the various queries. The ad hoc queries use a spreadsheet-like interface where users can move columns and employ sorts, filters, and styles.

New features include Hot Objects that allows for a predefined drill-down at a later date, such as during off-hours; the Personal Data Mart that allows for off-line data manipulation; a server-based Knowledge Base synchronization that assures that the user always has the latest data; and additional e-mail reporting features.

The Administrator Edition, which includes the Knowledge Base Manager that allows database administrators to configure, define, and maintain access to multiple data sources, also includes the Reporting Edition. The package lists for $995. The Reporting Edition only provides both the interactive ad hoc query mode and the report designer. It lists for $695. The Query Edition includes the ability to ad hoc queries and allows users to submit other users' documents for viewing, printing, or exporting results; but these documents cannot be changed. It lists for $250.

IQ Software also enhanced its IQ/LiveWeb with such features as automatic deployment of dynamic reporting, the ability to build and deploy linked, multitier documents, and new HTML capabilities. Ver 6.0 of the package adds SmartCGI, which eliminates the need for the manual coding and management associated with CGI scrips. SmartCGI also creates the associated HTML interface pages for dynamic reports and manages the links between interfaces and reports.

Hot Objects allow users to build and deploy linked, multitier documents from a single report. It also allows for "parent reports" and all of the associated reports to be generated and linked automatically.

The report features add a quick-query grid interface, query wizards, dynamic filter groups, prompt enhancements, and other capabilities for deploying reports to the Web. Added HTML features include JPEG support, conditional HTML output capabilities, and improved table and paragraph management.

The software, available for Unix and Windows NT, currently is being offered at no charge from the company's Web site. A link to the IQ/LiveWeb site is located below.

Firewalls ON guard
ON Technology Corp. announced its ON Guard Internet Firewall Ver. 2.0, which adds a wizard GUI that the company says will eliminate the complexity associated with enabling and disabling e-mail, FTP, telnet, RealAudio, and other services that must pass through a firewall running on Unix or Windows NT.

ON Guard uses a rules-based, application-layer firewall technology known as Stateful Multi-Layer Inspection, an approach that inspects multiple layers of the OSI model without the overhead of redundant processing used in proxy-based firewalls. The company rates the firewall at being able to support "up to three times the performance of incoming T1 connections."

List price for a turn-key ON Guard firewall ranges from $6,990 for up to 100 IP addresses to $16,490 for an unlimited pool of IP addresses; the add-on encryption module ranges from $1,995 to $4,995. The software currently is being shipped.

--Stephen Lawton

Resources

• Wingra Technologies Missive beta program
  http://www.wingra.com/beta
• IQ Software's IQ/Objects
  http://www.iqsoftware.com/products/iqobjects/iqobject.htm
• IQ's IQ/LiveWeb
  http://www.iqsoftware.com/products/liveweb/liveweb.htm
• ON Technology firewalls
  http://www.on.com/onguard/index.htm

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URL: http://www.sunworld.com/swol-03-1997/swol-03-inetshow.html
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