SSL-Explorer: Community Edition was an open source SSL VPN product developed by 3SP Ltd, a company acquired by Barracuda Networks in late 2008. The solution is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL) and is aimed primarily at smaller businesses to fulfill a requirement for remote access to internal network resources.

It is designed to be installed upon a standalone server and allows a user to connect remotely to internal corporate resources such as intranet websites, network file shares, ‘fat client’ applications and other data via a regular web browser. From the perspective of the end user the main advantage is that they have access to the applications that they would use everyday at work through a simple web browser without needing to install dedicated VPN client software.

SSL-Explorer can be implemented on the following operating systems:

• Microsoft Windows 2000, XP, XP x64, 2003 & Vista
• Various Linux distributions including Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Fedora Core, CentOS, Slackware, SUSE Linux, Debian, Gentoo, Conary based distributions
• Mac OS X v10.4 or later
• Sun Microsystems Solaris 8 and 9 (on SPARC and x86)

With SSL-Explorer users can be granted access to their files, intranet applications and email from virtually any location with an internet connection. Using SSL-Explorer you can quickly and simply provide full extranet access to key strategic business partners and external consultants. Similarly, your network support staff are also now free to remotely manage servers, routers and other network hardware securely using industry standard encryption technologies to protect key information assets.

SSL-Explorer allows you to 'lock-down' your network, leaving just a single port open on your firewall for the maximum possible security. Blueloop have been working with remote access solutions for many years. Since our involvement with Project Nomad we have grown our portfolio of solutions. Although SSL-Explorer is now part of the Barracuda product stable its previous incarnations still exist as Open Source solutions and for those looking for functionality at negligible cost then SSL-Explorer is worth considering.