Re: Secure tunneling via HTTP?

From: phn@icke-reklam.ipsec.nu
Date: 03/27/02 

From: phn@icke-reklam.ipsec.nu
Date: 27 Mar 2002 18:41:09 GMT

Bjoern Joergensen <ursus@ursusquietus.com> wrote:
> I have a very specific problem, that I don't see a solution for. Being
> a novice in network security however, I thought I would ask here and
> see if somebody can come up with a clever solution.

> Our company has a lot of users who want email, calendar and contacts.
> For this we have Exchange 2000. Most of these users are roaming and
> are often behind firewalls which only allow HTTP communication on port
> 80. These users would like to synchronize their email, calendar and
> contacts with the company server in a secure manner, since they are
> mostly offline. I therefore have 2 questions:

What you describe is a VPN solution.

Mail using exchange however is lousy during the propetary protocol
where each chunk of data has to be ack'ed before next may be transmitted.
So don't expect happy users.

Said that, all your needs could be fulfilled with standardized protocols
and a mix of products based on those products. Mail as an example is
moved with the famouys pop-3 ( or imap if yoi like ) protocol.

> 1. Is it in any way possible to somehow tunnel all communication
> through the HTTP protocol?

Not if you want it to work universally ( there is many ways to funnel
http traffic from an internal network to Internet)
You would be better off searching a solution that only needs https.

> 2. Are there any products other than Exchange and Notes which offer
> email, calendar and contacts, and the secure synching of these over
> HTTP?

Shure. neomail is one, free product.

> I hereby challenge you to find me a solution :)

I have a solution that fit's me. ssh

> Thanks in advance,

> Bjoern 

-- 
Peter Håkanson         
        IPSec  Sverige      (At the Riverside of Gothenburg, home of Volvo)
           Sorry about my e-mail address, but i'm trying to keep spam out.
	   Remove "icke-reklam" and it works.

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