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 Posta is a product that is rather difficult to categorize. Tumbleweed Software Corp.'s product can best be described as a document- or application-delivery system. Via TCP/IP, Posta can be used internally to deliver files or as a secure file-delivery mechanism over the Internet. It incorporates the features of e-mail and FTP, and includes encryption security and extensive tracking capabilities along with an integral billing system. Think of it as a virtual Federal Express.

We've been testing Tumbleweed Posta 1.5 for the past three months in Network Computing's Real-World Lab® in Manhasset, N.Y., and we've found it to be a secure, full-featured product that can augment your existing e-mail and FTP infrastructure. It provides many features in a little package, and it's an excellent alternative to FTP. Although the price per client is rather steep, we still recommend it.

To view the Report card.With Posta, a user can send and receive documents regardless of the client operating system. You might ask, if I have e-mail, why do I need Posta, or if I have Posta why do I need e-mail? Posta is not a replacement for e-mail: In fact, it requires a messaging system to notify the recipient that a delivery is waiting to be downloaded. And Posta incorporates many features that e-mail doesn't provide.

Does this sound an awful lot like FTP? Unlike FTP, Posta does not require the user to sweat the FTP details. It doesn't require that users have accounts on the server (assuming anonymous FTP is not being used) or sufficient rights to get the appropriate files. Anyone who has supported novice users knows how much time can be spent holding their hands while instructing them in the fine art of FTPing files to and from servers.

Simple Operation The Posta system operates relatively efficiently. Senders, using the Posta client or a standard Web browser, upload files to the Posta server. The Posta server then notifies the recipient via an e-mail that contains a secure URL. Recipients click on the URL, answer where they want to save the document, then download it. It's that simple.

Behind the scenes, Posta's hardware requirements are modest. However, the product does need a large amount of disk space to handle the volume of data you anticipate because this data will sit on the server until it expires or you delete it. For our testing, we provided service to 50 users from a 166-MHz Pentium with 128 MB of RAM and 4 GB of disk.

Posta sits atop a Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 server and requires Internet Information Server and SQL Server. Posta versions supporting SunSoft's Solaris as well as Oracle Corp. databases are in the works. Although not a Tumbleweed issue, we did encounter setup problems with SQL Server, which hindered our progress. We found some rather strange anomalies with administrative logins, too, until the SQL Server Service Pack was installed. Once this patch was in place and Posta was reinstalled (a 10-minute process), we were off and running. Worth noting, however, is the fact that the administrator account used upon installation must be set with the user rights to log in as part of the operating system and also to log in as a service. These are set within NT in the user manager for domains.

Web Enabled The most notable aspect of Posta is its extensive use of HTTP. Not only can Posta users employ the client application that's included to send and track documents, they also can use any browser to attach to the server and send their data. Most people in our test group preferred the Web browser interface because of its familiarity.