Security With today's mission-critical use of the Internet, security is high on our feature wish list. We scrutinized Posta's security, and we were pleasantly surprised with what we found. Posta offers several levels of security, including SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) to encrypt documents for protection during transport, secret key encryption and password protection so that documents cannot be downloaded without the proper password.

A user accessing the Posta server to send data has the option of a secure login or the standard login. In addition, another layer of protection is provided by the document expiration specified by the sender. If the document isn't downloaded before the expiration date, it cannot be downloaded at all.

Security options are enabled by the sender with a click of the mouse on both the Web browser and client software interfaces. If the Posta server is to be accessed from the Internet, the same rules apply to the Posta server that would apply to any FTP server. We found that Posta offers more security features than most data transfer products, such as FTP, or platforms that transfer data across potentially unsecured media. However, we were unhappy to see that many of the security features--such as unsecured login to the server or unencrypted sending of documents--could be virtually ignored or forgotten by the client user.

Other Features Because the Internet can be unreliable when it comes to data transmission, Posta incorporates document tracking, which lets senders follow packages through the delivery process. This feature also provides the ability to retransmit documents in the event that the package was not received in a reasonable amount of time. With it, senders can log in to the server to see the progress of a sent document. They also can generate automatic or customized reports. This feature is reliable and useful when transmitting time-sensitive or vital business documents.

In addition to tracking, Posta offers the ability to set up mail or distribution lists. Posta can manage large mail list as well as merge lists from existing databases. Mail lists are easily selected via drop down menus on the client.

Another feature introduced in Posta 1.5 is the ability to convert documents on the fly into Adobe Acrobat format. This important addition is another means of ensuring

file compatibility between the sender and the recipient because of the universal compatibility of Acrobat. Unfortunately, this feature is not available if you use a Web browser to send Posta documents.

Posta also lets administrators create a billing code system or incorporate an existing code scheme on documents being sent. The server component also permits billing invoices.

Vic Cutrone is a Wide Area Network Engineer with CMP Media and has backgrounds and certifications in mainframe, routing, Novell, Windows NT, ATM, Gigabit Ethernet, switching, desktop support and remote-access. He is responsible for CMP's global network and has been in the networking field for more than 10 years. He can be reached at vcutrone@cmp.com.