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pcANYWHERE 8.0 is full of features that enhance remote control. For network administrators, the richer security features will quickly pay for themselves the first time you avoid a weekend trip into the office because of a simple network problem. For travelers, the conferencing and encryption features make staying in touch with the office securely a snap.

A Shiny New Suit User management in pcANYWHERE is greatly enhanced, thanks to the tight integration with the Windows NT User Manager for Domains. pcANYWHERE links with the Domain database to create access control lists that define which users can initiate a remote-control session. Setting up Windows NT users was a snap. I told pcANYWHERE to use NT Domains as the user database and then added both individual users and User Groups to the access list.

Since remote users can connect while a local user is on the console, Symantec has added well-thought-out security options for configuring desktop security. While the server is waiting for a remote-control connect ion, the desktop can be locked to local users. pcANYWHERE leverages Windows NT's internal locking mechanism for seamless int egration. Workstation locking also can be activated if a remote control session ends abnormally. Only the original user or an administrator may reconnect to the server.

You can set pcANYWHERE to pop up an alert for confirmation when a user is trying to connect. This is one way to keep authorized users from accessing the desktop while the console is in use. Network security is further enhanced by pcANYWHERE's support of Microsoft Corp.'s Crypto API. You can specify symmetric encryption or public key encryption, and you must install Crypto API (which means installing Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.02 or later). In the lab, I used the symmetric encryption and didn't notice any performance degradation.

The most noteworthy utility in this release is the Host Administration utility, which lets you start, stop and select host configuration files for NT hosts from a centralized workstation. This utility also lets you remotely manage pcANYWHERE hosts without being at the console of every logged-in user. I used the Host Administrator to start and stop hosts on our local network during daily activities.

pcANYWHERE now supports multicast conferencing. This feature grants remote users read- only access to the remote desktop, so you can run presentations over a WAN. You also can launch videoconferencing software from inside the remote-control window. White Pine Software's CU-SeeMe 3.0 ships with pcANYWHERE, simplifying the installation process.

Mike Fratto can be reached at mfratto@nwc.com.