Clavister today launched Clavister Firewall version 8.2, with several new important features, including an advanced Link Monitor, which greatly improves the High Availability functionality by being able to detect dead links, interfaces and gateways. Version 8.2 also incorporates DHCP over IPSec, VPN Keep-alive, an HTTP Poster, improved selection of VPN policies as well as a number of enhancements in the Clavister Firewall Manager software.

The DHCP over IPSec feature enables so called "Virtual IP" scenarios, where an illusion can be made of remote VPN hosts actually being physically present in the private network. With virtual IP technology, the user has access to remote DNS and WINS servers and is able to browse the remote network, and to log in to the domain, for example.

In previous versions of Clavister Firewall, VPN tunnels for a specific type of traffic were chosen based on a combination of the destination address and a "Secure" flag in the main ruleset. Starting from the new Clavister Firewall version 8.2, VPN tunnels can now also be chosen using the standard routing table, or the more advanced policy-based routing engine.

"With this new Clavister Firewall version, we are now finally able to deploy many of the advanced VPN services and solutions that our customers are requesting, but which we had to postpone earlier as there were simply no capable products on the market," said Mikael Hugo, CEO at Dataphone Sweden AB.

"The new product features in combination with Clavister's powerful appliance hardware represents the foundation of an infrastructural platform able to bring our next-generation security services to the market," concludes Mikael Hugo.

A common problem with many IPSec VPN deployments is that administrators can be forced to re-initialize remote VPN gateways, should the main gateway for some reason has dropped its security association without notifying the other peer.

The new VPN Keep-alive functionality in Clavister Firewall version 8.2 solves this issue, by having the gateway generate artificial network traffic through specified VPN tunnels. This method ensures not only that already established VPN tunnels are maintained, but also that terminated VPN tunnels are automatically and instant re-established. This feature can drastically improve system uptime and reduce maintenance costs.

Furthermore, Clavister Firewall version 8.2 includes an HTTP Poster, which can be configured to periodically contact external web servers to post freely configurable parameters. One usage for this feature is, for instance, to enable automatic logon for services using web-based authentication, such as the Telia Internet ADSL service. Another usage could be to contact a DynDNS server to inform the server of the current IP address of a DHCP-enabled firewall.

The new software version is freely available for all Clavister users with a valid software subscription. The upgrade can be downloaded from the Clavister Client Web Pages at https://clientweb.clavister.com.

For detailed information about changes and bug fixes in the new release, please see the "Release Notes" section at http://www.clavister.com.

About Clavister
Clavister is a leading developer of high-performance IT/IP security. The products, based on unique technology, include carrier-class firewalls and VPN solutions. They have been awarded preferred choice by international press and are in use today by thousands of satisfied customers. In short; In a world where people depend on information, Clavister provides complete security solutions more cost-efficient than any competitor, always with Your business in mind.

Clavister was founded 1997 in Sweden. Its R&D and headquarters is situated in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden and its solutions are marketed and sold through sales offices, distributors and resellers in Europe and Asia. Clavister also offers its technology to OEM manufacturers.