nFast 300 can process up to 300 RSA key signings per second. If you'd rather not manually edit server configuration files or run command-line utilities, this isn't your best choice. However, with an average 28-percent reduction in response time from a secured Web server, you might consider familiarizing yourself with a command prompt.

Because nFast 300 has no Windows interface, it was a bit clumsy to integrate with our Web server. Nevertheless, we appreciated its worry-free plug-and-play installation. Discrepancies between the user's guide and the actual directory structure hurt our ability to edit the Web server's configuration files manually. We brought these concerns to nCipher's attention, and it is in the process of shipping what promises to be an accurate installation application.

nCipher offers a host of command-line utilities that let you test its nFast 300 unit and diagnose any problems. Another utility lets you upgrade the unit's firmware. In our tests, this utility was informative, if not verbose. Information about the current ROM version, the number of installed modules and speed indexes was interesting, but not truly pertinent to Web server interoperability. Nevertheless, these tests assured us that the unit was working properly.

Once we restarted our Web server, nFast 300 responded like a champ. Average response time dropped dramatically, and transactions per second rose from 200 percent to 300 percent under the same load, which generated an average of 900 to 1,500 hits per second. Response times were consistently between four and six seconds during the peak load times.

While we were delighted by nFast 300's performance, it came as a complete surprise: The product did not include a monitor, but only a status light that blinked Morse Code in the face of a problem. nCipher is now developing a visual monitor--a smart move, considering that CryptoSwift includes one.

At press time, nCipher was releasing a new version of nFast that is expected to include an improved installation program, support for IIS 3.0 and 4.0, and a PKCS #11 library.