Lightning announces a powerful new VPN option for all MultiCom Firewalls using the upcomming firmware 3.5: SSH Port Forwarding.

SSH Port Forwarding allows you to forward TCP connections such as POP3 mail, HTTP, telnet, VNC, Microsoft Remote Desktop and others over an encrypted SSH connection. This avoids the network traffic being sent in cleartext. For example, your home computer can be securely connected to the mail server at the office.

Choose from a wide selection of free or low cost client software for secured communication to your network from WinCE and PalmOS devices, Nokia 9200 series cell phones and of course from Macintosh, Windows and Linux computers.

The SSH protocol offers secure remote login and data transfer over the Internet or any IP based network. Working on the network level, SSH provides authentication and strong encryption ciphers (AES-Rijndael, Blowfish, CAST, Twofish, or even 3DES) for data packets and streams. Public keys validation is available to validate both ends of the connection before any data transfer takes place. SSH Port Forwarding also protects data against eavesdroppers and session hijacking.