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Not Ready For Prime Time
If you want to realize the full potential of the IPSec protocol, you might want to hold off deploying some of the early implementations of IPSec in some routers and VPN (virtual private networking) software. The crucial element that's missing is automated key management--a piece of the IPSec standard that is still in the works at the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force). These early IPSec implementations rely on users at each end of the secured transmission being able to load their floppies and configure their DES (Data Encryption Standard) keys by themselves. That may work if you're a company with a statically configured pipe between your East and West Coast offices, says Theodore Ts'o, chairman of the IETF IPSec working group. But if you have a road warrior on a laptop who needs to communicate with multiple sites, don't expect him or her to manually configure keys for every site. Instead, what's needed is public-key technology that automatically negotiates your DES or other type of key for you. But perhaps the biggest question about IPSec is whether it will make its way into host machines as well as routers, says Ts'o. IPSec could replace the SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) if operating system vendors put IPSec in their IP stack, he says. Meanwhile, among the vendors testing IPSec implementations (some with automated key management) are Ascend Communications, Cisco Systems, IBM Corp., Raptor, TimeStep Corp., Trusted Information Systems and Xylan Corp.

Talk Is Not Cheap
NetWorks Telephony Corp. (NTC) thinks it has a way to get cash-starved ISPs to do mor e than just talk about voice over the Internet. For every voice call made by subscribers on NTC's free WebPhone software, an ISP can get 3 cents to 5 cents on the dollar, plus another 3 cents to 5 cents per dollar for all IP voice traffic routed through NTC's I-Bridge device on its LAN.

What's more, any enterprising ISP that agrees to tackle end-user billing and collection duties for NTC gets 15 cents on the dollar for traffic that traverses NTC's I-Bridge, says Michael Radice, vice president of marketing for NTC, a start-up Internet voice service provider funded largely by Infonet.

This unusual marketing campaign enabled NTC, which is offering one of the first rate-based Internet voice services, to get plenty of ISPs on board; its service is based mostly on Infonet's private IP network. The idea is to offer higher-quality voice calls--something many freebie software packages that work over the Internet can't match. NTC also goes beyond PC-to-PC model of early voice-over-IP packages by putting calls through to telephones outside the Internet, Radice says.

Offers like this have appeal, says Courtney Monroe, senior vice president of Probe Research, because ISPs cannot afford to invest in special bridges to carry voice traffic. Monroe says ISPs need financial incentives to help them ramp up for voice traffic. The market will become crowded once carriers begin rolling out IP voice, so it makes sense for ISPs to build the volume of traffic on their networks as soon as they can.