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UUNET plans to add strong security and greater network access control to its dial-up VPN services by year-end.
UUNET, MCI WorldCom's ISP business, will add support for integrated directory services, IP Security (IPSec) software, public-key infrastructure (PKI) and new customer premise virtual private network devices. The changes, which will bolster UUNET's dial-up VPN Services, now called UUDial, will take place over the next few months.
First, the company will give its dial-up VPN customers better control over user-access privileges by rolling out its Active Network Infrastructure (ANI) in the fourth quarter. ANI uses Cisco Networking Services for Active Directory - co-developed by Microsoft - to provision network resources and simplify net access administration.
ANI will let business users who have a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) Version 3-compliant server on their networks synchronize access privilege data between their directories and a master directory stored on UUNET's networks.
This move means that when network managers remove or change dial-up users on their LDAP servers, the managers will not have to contact WNET to make the same change on the UUNET network. Today, most users have to fill out an electronic form or contact a person at an ISP to add, drop or change a user's access privileges, says Eric Zines, senior consultant at...