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Technology Stocks : Novell (NOVL) dirt cheap, good buy? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ToySoldier who wrote (28546)	10/11/1999 11:39:00 PM
From: Scott C. Lemon	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 42771

Hello Toy, > Thats all I have been working with is SOCKS. IBM's entire internal > network hides behind SOCKS firewalls. In fact, all the workstations > inside IBM use either SOCKS Client stacks (Aventail or Hummingbird > - I personally use Hummingbird although Aventail's appears to be > the better client) So now I don't have to ask you which one you like better! ;-) I just started to play with the Hummingbird product ... > , or they engage the SOCKS component of the Internet software (such > as the Browsers, IRC, etc. etc.) in order to access the Internet. Yep ... I had experimented in the past with the BorderManager SOCKS implementation, but found that it didn't work well with the integrated support in products like ICQ ... now it seems to work well. (A couple of service packs later ...) >SOCKifying the entire client is much more effective a solution since > the Internet software does not have to be SOCKSified - many are > not. This is what I've just started to experiment with. Once I saw that the ICQ integrated support worked, I started to play with the SOCKS clients. I wanted to get UDP applications working behind NAT ... like the H.323 video conferencing apps like White Pine's CU-SeeMe and Microsoft's NetMeeting. > Novell's BorderManager is what I have been piloting behind IBM's > production firewalls for the past 10 months. IT HAS BEEN PAINFUL! But thank you ... the pain is obviously starting to make it's way into fixes in the product! ;-) > I can tell you this much - Novell's BM team has a lot to learn > about SOCKS! I have the BM 3.5 Proxy Caching server setup for its > caching, and therefore I have the BM server acting as a SOCKS > client to the IBM SOCKS firewalls. This is a pretty standard configuration ... I can see why you assumed it worked ... > For the most part it works but not after a lot of calls into Novell > and helping the BM product staff identify ABENDS, SOCKS 4 vs 5 > support, IP addressing exception tables, and load balancing. They > are still working some of these issues, BUT, since very few in the > industry use SOCKS, Novell has this section of BM low on their > priority list to resolve. But thanks anyhow! I too reported the problems that I was having early in the BorderManager v3.0 product. Now it seems to be working well. So who's SOCKS servers does IBM use int heir networks? > SOCKS is a very high-end solution but its also not too popular as a > firewall solution. I have been told that it is extremely firewall > resource intense and therefore needs a lot more horsepower of other > firewll options. Yep ... this makes sense. But NetWare is very good at this type of packet-hurling ... it might be a good spot for it ... > But yes, you are correct that SOCKS functions very similar to a NAT > with added benefits. If only Novell could understand how the mature > SOCKS vendors have developed SOCKS clients and servers and then > implement many of these basic SOCKS features into their product. I was also surprised that even now Novell doesn't seem to tell the customers that they can go get the Hummingbird client for free ... why don't they bundle it! > Maybe you still have a littl voice in Novell to encourage them to > put more work into the SOCKS support. Sounds like you've been one of the folks driving them to continue improvement! ;-) I'll keep trying. I'm actually working on some tools for BorderManager and have been doing research in this area ... I'm trying to sign up as a BorderManager/ICS developer ... but there is no clear path right now ... > Hows that for a long-winded answer to your question. Perfect! The kind of info I was after ... Scott C. Lemon