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Rollout: NetMotion Mobility XE 7.2: Page 3 of 4

On the client side, all Windows desktop and Windows Mobile OSs are supported. Version 7.2 adds support for the business version of Windows Vista. The only configuration parameter needed for installation is the IP address of the Mobility server. Single sign-on is also supported, provided the same Windows login credentials are used to authenticate to the Mobility XE VPN.

Our tests showed Mobility XE provides a seamless user experience. We roamed from Verizon's EV-DO to WLAN and back again on Windows XP, Vista and Mobile 5.0. Our HTTP downloads paused momentarily, then continued, and our SSH sessions never dropped. We were even able to place the mobile devices into standby mode without disrupting our applications. The only application Mobility XE couldn't maintain for extended periods was NetBIOS file transfers, which have a 30-second hard coded time-out limit built into the protocol.

Mobility XE won't work with a conventional IPsec or SSL VPN because it intercepts all application network requests at a higher layer than other VPN solutions. However, users can place Mobility XE into bypass mode, allowing the use of other VPN solutions as needed.

What's New

Since we last reviewed Mobility XE in April 2005 (see nwc.com/go/0528gateways.jhtml), a variety of features have been added to this Editor's Choice pick. For instance, syslog support allows centralized aggregation of Mobility XE alerts into existing monitoring infrastructures. Web image acceleration offers increased browsing speed on slow networks by compressing images. Also new is Client Network Failover, which lets the Mobility XE client choose an interface with a route to the Mobility server, even if it's not the fastest connection.