We set up rules to permit and deny access. Even pinging the Web server was impossible without a rule to permit it. However, the access-denial message did not work at all. Cylink officials said they plan to correct this in a maintenance release. A network packet trace showed that even a session between a remote user and the gateway was encrypted automatically, so anyone trying to use a packet analyzer to read passwords or account numbers is out of luck.
Encryption is on full-time.
The only real problem we had with PrivateWire was certifying users for access, and that process got easier with practice. In the case of online registration, we completed basic information, then waited for E-mail notification that our certificate had been issued. When the administrator completed certification from a specially configured PrivateWire client, PrivateWire notified us automatically. Then we returned to our browser to retrieve and install the certificate. We installed ours on an HP Vectra 500 running Windows 95.