About Castle Rock
Castle Rock Adds Secure Network Management Capabilities
SARATOGA, CA, June 19, 2001, Castle Rock Computing announces support for secure management in Release 5.1 of the SNMPc Distributed Network Manager. SNMPc 5.1 implements Version 3 of the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) to provide MD5 or SHA Authentication and DES Encryption to any SNMP V3 enabled device. Authenticated access ensures that only trusted personnel can configure devices over a public or other unsecured network. DES Encryption extends the utility of SNMP for Server and Database management by enabling private access to sensitive information.
SNMPc is a distributed multi-user system that can manage very large networks. In release 5.1, these capabilities are further enhanced with Restricted User Views. Each SNMPc user can now be restricted to view only a subset of the SNMPc topology maps, event logs, and WEB Trend Reports. This feature simplifies management and monitoring of multiple network domains.
Many companies use SNMPc to provide outsourced network management services. These companies manage devices at customer sites over the Internet or other public networks. Typically this service is limited to monitoring and trend analysis because the end-user does not want to allow configuration capabilities from outside of its own company. Management service consultants can now use SNMPc 5.1 to provide full configuration capabilities and without compromising the end-user network.
A likely application for SNMPc 5.1 is managing cable modem installations. Cable modems can be configured for "quality of service" parameters and they can store performance, error and diagnostic information. Remote access of this information allows the cable ISP to provide better customer service at a lower cost. But a cable modem network is inherently insecure because the home users all share the same LAN. These issues are specifically addressed by the DOCSIS cable modem specification, which requires SNMP Version 3 support for secure and private access.
SNMPc 5.1 will be available in August and runs under Windows 2000, NT, ME, and ’98. Pricing starts at $995 for the standalone Workgroup Edition and $2995 for the multi-user Enterprise Edition. A free upgrade is available for SNMPc users who have a current maintenance contract. Castle Rock Computing was established in 1987 to exclusively develop products for the network management field. More than 100,000 copies of SNMPc have been sold over the last ten years.
