Netscreen's IVE 4.0 Centralizes VPN Management

Among the platform's most notable features are its access-policy enforcement capabilities and its NetScreen-SA Central Manager, which provides centralized monitoring, reporting and configuration management of multiple IVEs. In addition, version 4.0 enables dynamic-access control based on user identity, browser, time of day, and whether the user's remote device is managed. It also supports multiple hosts, which you can customize.

Hooked Up to the IVE

I tested the IVE 4.0 using a NetScreen-SA 3000 appliance. I was able to integrate the IVE with our Active Directory 2000 installation for user authentication; IVE also supports RADIUS, LDAP and its own internal identity store. Single sign-on functionality for Web resources is supported via forms and header-based posts.

To evaluate the dynamic nature of access policies, I created two roles: "User," for those signing on from a known IP address (in this case, my home office); and "KioskUser," for those signing on from all other addresses.

Upon creating a role, the administrator can assign it access rights. I limited the KioskUser's access to Web and Windows file shares, excluding NetworkConnect, terminal sessions (SSH/telnet) and e-mail.