A Practical Guide to IPv6
Developments and Concepts
Process Software Corporation
The Internet Protocol (IP) has made it possible for millions of computers to be connected and has accelerated the Information Age rapidly toward the next century. With the prolific growth of computer network applications, however, the current version of IP, IPv4, is steadily becoming inadequate in meeting the needs of connecting not just millions, but billions of people throughout the world.
The next generation of IP, IPv6, is becoming a reality. IPv6 will greatly expand the addressing scheme to allow for billions of billions more connections than IPv4 can and will provide for authentication and privacy of transmissions, plus contain other enhancements — all of which mean that truly global interconnection can happen.
A great deal of research and testing of IPv6 is underway. IPv6: A Practical Guide to Developments and Concepts, describes the need for the next generation protocol, helps demystify the changes taking place, and offers tips for making the transition to the new version when ready.
You should have some networking experience and a basic understanding of TCP/IP concepts. For more information, you can refer to TCP/IP Defined — A Practical Guide to TCP/IP Networking Terms and Concepts, another booklet available from Process Software Corporation. There is also a list of other resources at the end of this booklet and a glossary of Internet terms.
The information about IPv6 is organized as follows:
The Introduction describes recent Internet events that have led to developing IPv6.
Sections 1 and II are quick and brief overviews of the Internet Protocol and IPv4.
Section III explains the new IPv6 and how the differences between IPv4 and IPv6 will benefit users.
Section IV explains how the task force is planning the transition from IPv4 to IPv6.
Section V lists sources for more information about IPv6.
The Internet Protocol (IP) was developed about 20 years ago as the network layer of the Internet’s architecture. The combination of IP with a transport protocol, such as the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), means you can be assured that the data you send reaches its destination.
TCP is the transport protocol that is most commonly paired with IP. Originally designed to interconnect the large, dissimilar computer systems used by the U.S. Government, TCP/IP has mushroomed into a family of protocols in use world-wide by private industry, governments, and the general public alike for connecting to the Internet.
There has been a phenomenal increase in the use of the Internet by individual users and corporations, and this is expected to continue. An additional need for access to the Internet is expected from market areas, such as Universal Personal Communications (UPC), cellular communications, cable television receivers, and even point-of-sale terminals. The Internet has fast become a very application-rich environment, spurred on by the increasing popularity of the World Wide Web.
This huge growth in usage and demand has almost exhausted the capabilities of the current version of the Internet Protocol, IPv4. Because of the increase in demands, there will not be enough IP addresses available, some experts believe, beyond the year 2010. Development of the Internet Protocol’s “next generation,” IPv6 (also known as IPng), is well underway as a replacement for IPv4.
This shortage of IP addresses created the need for a new IP version that provides a better addressing scheme; however, that is not the only change. IPv6 will also define a set of security services providing authentication and privacy, plus support for autoconfiguration and high-performance operation.
With IPv6, users around the globe will be able to have their networking needs met well past the beginning of and into the next century. As with any new software that so many users, applications, and networks depend on, there is great concern about the changes and how IPv6 will be integrated into existing systems. This booklet explains those changes and the planned transition process.
The next section in this booklet is a brief overview of the Internet Protocol and its role. Its a good idea to read this section as a refresher or as background information for subsequent sections.
The Internet Protocol (IP) is the network layer of the Internet’s architecture. Combined with the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), and commonly known as TCP/IP, it has become synonymous with the Internet. The TCP part of the protocol suite takes data from applications, segments it, and then passes it to IP. IP then defines the datagrams and the method the Internet’s routers use to route the datagrams on their way to their destination.
IP, therefore, contains the rules that govern:
• The packet structure for the information passing over the Internet (a datagram)
• The rules that govern how hosts are identified (IP addresses)
• The route datagrams take to their destination via routers or gateways
IP is a connectionless protocol; it does not try to establish a connection with the destination computer before it sends a datagram and each datagram is processed independently. Because of this, IP can’t verify that the datagram was actually delivered and delivered correctly. So in this sense, IP is unreliable because it does not guarantee delivery.
IP also chooses the path on which data is sent and characterizes how hosts and routers should process packets, how and when error messages should be generated (but without error correction), and the conditions under which packets can be discarded.
The TCP part of the Internet protocol suite provides transport services to IP. TCP ensures delivery. This separation of services allows for development of each of the protocols independently of each other, making it easier to update and improve each protocol.
IP addresses are crucial to the workings of the Internet. It’s only by the addressing scheme that users on different networks, using any of the variety of hardware and software in use, can connect with each other. And it’s how the addressing scheme of IPv4 is structured that is driving the need for IPv6.
IP addresses identify individual interfaces and the networks to which they connect; they identify the connection, not the specific computer. IPv4 addresses use a 32-bit, dotted decimal notation for address identification.
The information packets that IP transmits must have a certain format, which IP defines in datagrams. The protocol specifies the format of the datagram, which contains the IP source and destination addresses in a header. The header also contains a protocol field, which identifies the contents of the datagram.
One important fact to remember: Datagrams contain the version of IP used to create the datagram. This can have a key role in any new version because the IP version must match the one the software expects. If not, the software can reject datagrams with an unexpected version number.
Routers can be considered the intermediaries in a network communication sequence. Sometimes called gateways, routers are the devices that interconnect two networks and deliver the packets, or datagrams, to the intended IP address. Routers base datagram delivery on the network address, rather than the host address, and rely on the network to pass the datagram on to the correct host.
IP routers on a TCP/IP internet cooperate with each other to ensure that the datagram reaches a router that can deliver the datagram directly. Routing information is contained in an IP routing table on each router; the tables contain the possible destinations and each hop to the next router needed to reach them. In this way, one router can send packets to another router, which then forwards them to the next router, and so on until a router that is connected to the desired network is reached.
Routers come into play when a datagram needs to be sent to a host that is not on the same network as the sending host. This is where the header information in an IP datagram has an important role. The sender compares the destination network address to the network portion of its own address and forwards the datagram to the router that can make the right connection.
These descriptions of addresses, datagrams, and routers are basic to IP and of themselves are not exactly responsible for the need to create a new IP version. It is the size and structure of IPv4 addresses that are causing the most concern.
The next section describes in greater detail the shortcomings of IPv4 and reveals the need for IPv6.
Of utmost concern to the Internet community is the need for enough IP addresses for the billions upon billions of possible hosts needing to connect to the Internet. The current version, IPv4, does have the capability for more than 4 billion addresses, which might sound more than adequate. But it’s not so much the number of addresses that is a problem as it is the way that IPv4 groups bits for its network/host numbering system.
IPv4’s numbering system wastes address assignments and suffers from excessive routing overhead.
To illustrate these problems, you need to understand how IPv4 assigns addresses and how that affects IP routing tables.
IP addressing is based on network number assignment and host number assignment. In IPv4, these numbers are organized as 32-bit addresses, with host numbers and network numbers embedded in the addresses. These numbers identify the network or host connection and not the actual network or computer. IPv4 divides its address assignment into three main classes: A, B, and C.
• Class A addresses assign the first 7 bits (or 1 byte) to a network and the last 24 bits (or 3 bytes) to a host. These addresses are reserved for organizations that have up to 16 777 216 hosts, and there can be at most 128 of these networks.
• Class B addresses assign the first 14 bits (or 2 bytes) to a network and the last 16 bits (or 2 bytes) to a host. These addresses are reserved for organizations that have up to 65 536 hosts, and there can be at most 16 384 networks.
• Class C addresses assign the first 21 bits (or 3 bytes) to a network and the last 7 bits (or 1 byte) to a host. These addresses are reserved for organizations that have less than 256 hosts, and there can be at most 2 097 152 networks.
The address class determines the network mask of the address. A network mask is a 32-bit internet address that has all the bits in the network number set to one and all the bits in the host number set to zero. Hosts and routers use the network mask to route internet packets.
Table 1 lists the decimal value of each address class and its corresponding network mask.
Table 1 Internet Address Classes and Network Masks
| Class | First Byte | Network Mask |
| A | 1. — 127. | 255.0.0.0 |
| B | 128. — 191. | 255.255.0.0 |
| C | 192. — 223. | 255.255.255.0 |
To further illustrate how IPv4 assigns addresses, Figure 1 shows the breakdown in decimal notation of network numbers and host numbers.
Figure 1 Internet Address Classes and Decimal Notation
These amounts might seem like enough to serve everyone in the world who needs an IP address. It probably would be if it weren’t for the way that IPv4 handles the addresses within each of these classes.
Imagine a company needs 300 host addresses. This amount would put them into the Class B category. However, if the company is assigned a Class B address, then they would have 65 536 hosts, which is significantly more than what is needed. About 65 000 addresses would be wasted.
To avoid this type of situation, the Classless Inter-Domain Routing scheme (CIDR) was introduced a few years ago. CIDR essentially eliminates the class structure of addressing and, instead, allows the assignment of network numbers at any bit boundary. In this way network numbers can be created, for example, by aggregating several contiguous class C addresses. CIDR requires that network masks be explicitly specified when needed, rather than allowing them to be implicitly derived from the address (as in the class system).
Another problem attributed to IPv4’s address classes is the Internet backbone router table size explosion. CIDR also addresses this by allowing for address aggregation.
A negative aspect to CIDR is that with an arbitrary address, you cannot determine the network and host numbers unless you know the network mask.
The limitations of IPv4 have quickly been realized and measures, such as CIDR, have extended its life slightly. World-wide network demand, however, is making the need for IPv6 immediate.
The next section describes how IPv6 is being developed and the features it will bring to the Internet.
Four years ago, various groups within the Internet community began working on the next version of the Internet Protocol, IPv6. The current version, IPv4, has been adequate to support simple distributed applications, such as file transfer and electronic mail. But the world’s needs today are calling for the Internet to support a multimedia environment, rich in applications, and use of the World Wide Web. With the advent of complex client/server environments and intranets in the corporate world, greater support of these applications and for Web users is a must.
The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) issued a call for proposals for specifications for the next generation IP. Two years ago, a design for IPv6 was developed. That design focuses on three main areas:
• Addressing
• Performance
• Security
IPv6 uses a 128-bit addressing scheme. This increases address space by a factor of 296! According to one IPv6 paper, this should provide for “adequate addressing capability for any network limited to this planet.” By using 128 bits rather than 32 bits as IPv4 does, IPv6 increases address space by a billion x a billion x a billion times. A comparison of this increase translates to:
| IP Version | Size of Address Space |
| IPv4 | 32 bits = 4,294,967,296 |
| IPv6 | 128 bits = 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456 |
But what is as important as the address space is the how the addresses are allocated. IPv6 assigns addresses in a hierarchical manner, as needed by the requester, rather than in blocks that have unused addresses, as IPv4 does. In this hierarchical scheme, an upper authority subdivides its address allocation to a lower authority, which can subdivide its address allocation to the next lower authority, and so on.
Currently, the bulk of addresses are assigned by network providers. With IPv6, addresses are not centrally allocated and only one prefix (010) is for network provider allocations.
The address classes of IPv6 also meet the needs of the user community more directly than IPv4. There are basically three types of network users: ones who use an organization’s intranet and the Internet; ones who use only their company’s intranet at this time, but might connect to the Internet in the future; and individuals who connect to the Internet via telephone lines from home, airports, hotels, or anywhere else.
IPv6 provides a better way of servicing these kinds of users by offering three address types:
• Four categories of unicast addresses
• Improved multicast address format
• The new anycast address format
The IPv6 addresses are 128-bit identifiers for interfaces and sets of interfaces.
Unicast addresses identify a single interface. Packets sent to a unicast address are delivered to the interface identified by that address.
There are four types of unicast addresses.
• Provider-based, which provides global addressing to all connected hosts
Example:
| Bits | 3 | n | m | o | p | 125-n-m-o-p |
| 010 | Registry ID | Provider ID | Subscriber ID | Subnet ID | Interface ID |
• Local use, which includes link-local for addressing on a single link (physical network) or subnetwork, and site-local designed for local use that can later be integrated into global addressing
Example of link-local:
| Bits | 10 | n | 118-n |
| 1111111010 | 0 | Interface ID |
Example of site-local:
| Bits | 10 | n | m | 118-n-m |
| 1111111011 | 0 | Subnet ID | Interface ID |
• IPv4 compatible, which provides compatibility between IPv4 and IPv6 until a complete transition is attained
Example:
| Bits | 96 | 32 |
| 0000 FFFF | IPv4 Address |
• Loopback, which sends an IPv6 packet to itself. These packets are not sent outside a single node.
Example:
| Bits | 96 | 32 |
| 0000 0000 | 0001 |
The interface is the system’s Ethernet, FDDI, or Token Ring MAC address (48-bit).
Multicast addresses identify a set of interfaces that usually belong to different nodes. Packets sent to a multicast address are delivered to all interfaces identified by that address. This is useful in several ways, such as sending discovery messages to only the machines that are registered to receive them. A particular multicast address can be confined to a single system, restricted to a
specific site, associated with a particular network link, or distributed world-wide.
Note that IPv6 has no broadcast addresses and uses multicasting instead.
Example:
| Bits | 8 | 4 | 4 | 112 |
| 11111111 | Flags | Scope | Group ID |
Anycast addresses are new to IP technology with this version of the protocol. This kind of address identifies a set of interfaces, usually belonging to different nodes. A packet sent to an anycast address is delivered to one of the interfaces identified by the address. This is usually the nearest interface, and is determined by how the router measures distance.
This makes routing more efficient because the address itself can specify intermediate hops en route to a destination, rather than having the router determine the route.
Example:
| Bits | n | 128-n |
| Subnet prefix | 0000 0000 |
Network performance is directly related to routing. The amount of traffic that leaves the local network (external traffic) compared to the amount of traffic that occurs on the network is constantly increasing. This is due in part to the demand for more services, especially graphics based services. Speeds for LANs and WANs have also increased to hundreds of megabits per second, with gigabit networks not far in the future. Routers need to perform their functions of processing and forwarding IP datagrams much quicker than before.
There are fewer fields in an IPv6 packet header than in IPv4. To increase the speed at which a packet travels past a router, separate optional headers are placed between the IPv6 header and the transport layer header. Most of these are not examined or processed by routers along the packet’s path, which simplifies and speeds up router processing. Additional optional headers are also easier to add, making IPv6 more flexible than IPv4. Because the IPv6 packet header has a fixed length, processing is also simplified.
IPv6 does not fragment packets as they are routed as IPv4 does. Instead, packet fragmentation and reassembly will be done exclusively in the communicating hosts, thus reducing the workload for intermediate routers. When the transition to IPv6 is complete, the Internet will consist of only networks with Maximum Transmission Units (MTUs) equal to or larger than 576 bytes.
Performance with IPv6 will be optimized by the use of flow labels. The flow source specifies in the label any special service requirements from routers along a path, such as priority, delay, or bandwidth. All packets in the sequence carry the same details of this information in the flow label to reserve the type of service they need from intermediate routers. Such a need would be for transmitting video, or limiting traffic a specific computer or application sends to avoid congestion.
With IPv6, a flow can be one or multiple TCP connections, and a single application could generate a single flow or multiple flows. An example of a single flow would be a text page, and an example of a multiple flow would be an audio/visual conference.
Packets that share a flow label also share path, resource allocation, discard requirements, accounting, and security attributes. The flow label is defined before transmission.
As the Internet has grown in popularity and use, the reasons for its use have changed and increased. More and more, users want to know that their transactions and access to their own sites are secure. Users also want to increase security across protocol layers. Up until IPv6, security has been available only by added applications or services.
IPv6 provides security measures in two functional areas, authentication and privacy.
Authentication requires that a sender log into the receiver. If the sender is not recognized, then access is not allowed. If access is allowed, this ensures that the packets were actually sent by the approved sender and that the content was not changed in transit.
Privacy takes the form of encryption and protects data from unintended users. Packets that leave a site can be encrypted and packets that enter a site can be authenticated.
Both privacy and authentication can be applied in a “security association.” For a one-way exchange between a sender and a receiver, one association is needed; for a two-way exchange, two associations are needed. When combining authentication and privacy, either can be applied first. If encryption is applied first, the entire packet is authenticated, including encrypted and unencrypted parts. If authentication is applied first, authentication applies to the entire packet.
Configuring IPv4 systems has traditionally been difficult and problematic. IPv6 offers two ways computer systems and personal electronic products configure themselves automatically: stateful and stateless.
With stateful autoconfiguration, servers can dynamically assign unique addresses to computers as they are requested, getting the addresses from a database of pre-allocated values.
With stateless autoconfiguration, IPv6 nodes can generate globally unique addresses by concatenating the link-local address of the network connection they are using with an internal interface number, such as an Ethernet or Token Ring MAC address.
Much planning, testing, and more testing has gone into the development of IPv6 to ensure that use of the Internet is interrupted as little as possible. The next section explains the transition plan.
In creating the next generation Internet Protocol, the IETF has also created a transition path from IPv4 to IPv6. The immense size of the Internet, and thus all the users of IPv4, makes an overnight change impossible. And no user can afford any down-time caused by waiting to upgrade.
For these reasons, the transition to IPv6 can be done on a node-by-node basis. Autoconfiguration should help by eliminating the need for human intervention to configure systems.
There are features of IPv6 that are compatible with IPv4, which will help ease the transition. For example, IPv4 addresses can be embedded within IPv6 addresses and all IPv6 nodes, at least for the time being, also support IPv4. Packets for IPv6 can be embedded within IPv4 packets so tunneling through parts of the network that support only IPv4 is possible.
Because of this compatibility between IPv4 and IPv6, some users may not feel the need to upgrade. However, the benefits of using IPv6 far outweigh the cost of upgrading. To not upgrade would be like riding a horse on the Autobahn rather than driving a car.
IPv6 is being tested over and over by IETF and its participating partners. With its core specifications finalized, IPv6 implementations should occur within a year and Internet Service Providers should begin to offer IPv6 links during the next three to four years.
When your organization is ready to upgrade, or you begin to use IPv6 applications, there will be many sources available to you for help and guidance.
Process Software Corporation provides information you can access from the following Web site:
http://www.process.com/ipv6
There are several Requests for Comments (RFCs) available online about IPv6. This section lists the ones that contain more detailed information about the areas described in this booklet.
| RFC Number | RFC Title |
| 1809 | Using the Flow Label in IPv6 |
| 1825 | Security Architecture for the Internet Protocol |
| 1826 | IP Authentication Header |
| 1827 | IP Encapsulating Security Payload |
| 1881 | IPv6 Address Allocation Management |
| 1883 | Internet Protocol, Version 6 Specification |
| 1884 | IP Version 6 Addressing Architecture |
| 1887 | An Architecture for IPv6 Unicast Address Allocation |
| 1933 | Transition Mechanisms for IPv6 Hosts and Routers |
These RFcs plus more technical information about IPv6 is available from the following Web site:
http://www.process.com/ipv6
address
In the Internet, the exact network location of a computer or a node. Addresses can be numerical or name.
anycast
A method, developed for IPv6, of sending a datagram or packet to a single address with more than one interface. The packet is usually sent to the “nearest” node in a group of nodes, as determined by the router. Compare to multicast and unicast.
authentication
The process of verifying that the person or machine trying to gain access to a system or site is actually as claimed. Usually verified by a password; however, since passwords can be guessed or discovered, a system that requires an encrypted password and a key to decrypt it are becoming popular.
Classless Inter-Domain Routing Protocol
Also CIDR. A policy that basically eliminates the IPv4 address class structure (A, B, and C). This allows, for example, a single network number to be assigned from a block of class C addresses to a requesting organization.
datagram
Term used in IPv4. The format for a packet of data sent on the Internet to a specific destination address. Specifies standards for the header information. In IPv6, datagrams are known as packets.
encryption
Conversion of human-readable data (plaintext) into encoded data (ciphertext) that can be decoded only with a specific key.
flow, flow label
A flow is a sequence of transmitted packets for which the source wants special handling by intervening routers. It has a unique identification of a source address and a nonzero 24-bit flow label.
gateway
See router.
header
The information at the beginning of a message being transmitted. Includes the source and destination addresses, routing, and other information.
host, host computer
Any end-user computer, such as a personal computer or workstation that is part of a local area network, or any other system that connects to a network and functions as the endpoint of a data transfer on the Internet.
Internet
The connection of the uncountable, dissimilar networks of computers throughout the world using TCP/IP to exchange data. Differentiate this from internet, with a lowercase i, which is a local network that shares a common communications protocol.
Internet Engineering Task Force
Also IETF. An international group of network designers, operators, vendors, and researchers, closely aligned to the Internet Architecture Board and chartered to work on the design and engineering of TCP/IP and the global Internet. The IETF is divided into groups or areas, each with a manager. Open to any interested individual.
Internet Protocol
The protocol or standard at the network level of the Internet that defines the packets of information and routing them to remote nodes, and the method of addressing remote computers and routing packets to remote hosts.
Internet Service Provider
Businesses that provide subscription services, such as online information retrieval software, bulletin boards, electronic mail, and so on to users for a fee.
IP
See Internet Protocol.
IPv4 and IPv6
IPv4 is the current version of the Internet Protocol; IPv6, which is being developed and tested now, will be the next version.
Maximum Transmission Units
The largest amount of data that can be transferred across a network; size is determined by the network hardware.
multicast
Method of transmitting messages to a selected subset of all the hosts that can receive the messages.
packet
In the IPv6, the name for datagram. The units of data a transmission is broken into so it can be sent in the most efficient and quick manner across the network.
protocol
A standard or set of rules that govern how something works, in this case, the Internet.
router
An internet device that connects two networks, either local or wide area networks, that use identical protocols. Passes, or routes, data being sent between the two networks.
routing table
A table of information on each machine that stores information about possible destination addresses and how to reach them. Used by IP to decide where to send a datagram or packet.
Transmission Control Protocol
The protocol at the Internet’s transport layer that governs the transmission of datagrams or packets by providing reliable, full-duplex, stream service to application protocols, especially IP. Provides reliable connection-oriented service by requiring that the sender and receiver exchange control information, or establish a connection before transmission can occur. Contrast to User Datagram Protocol.
unicast
The method of sending a packet or datagram to a single address. Compare to anycast and multicast.
User Datagram Protocol
An unreliable, connectionless protocol suite that manages the transport of data. Often used with the Internet Protocol for transmissions that will normally create an automatic response when received. Contrast to Transmission Control Protocol.
Process Software Corporation offers a one-stop resource for TCP/IP solutions. The company’s complete line of product and service offerings include TCP/IP networking software for OpenVMS and award-winning Purveyor WebServer software for OpenVMS, Windows NT, Windows 95, and NetWare.
Recognized by thousands of users world-wide as the leader among TCP/IP solutions for OpenVMS, TCPware provides complete TCP/IP and IPX/SPX connectivity for Digital Equipment Corporation’s VAX and Alpha systems. The TCP/IP software provides an open, efficient networking solution that brings reliable interoperability to varied computer resources and helps ensure your OpenVMS system remains an active, valuable part of your evolving network.
Some of the many features of TCPware include:
• Applications written for Digital’s TCP/IP Services for OpenVMS (formerly UCX), including PATHWORKS, DECnet/OSI, DECwindows, and DECmcc run transparently over TCPware.
• Classless Inter-Domain Routing allows expanded use of the IPv4 address space, and more efficient routing through the support of variable subnet masks, supernetting, and hierarchical routing.
• SNMP Agent Extensions (Extensible MIBS) allow customer-written programs to respond to requests and commands from SNMP-based network management stations.
• Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) for dial-up networking
• Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server support for efficient address assignment.
• Advanced routing support through Gateway Routing Daemon (GateD) and RIP
• Dynamic cluster Load Balancing for efficient use of system resources
• Cluster Alias Failover ensures maximum network uptime
• RDBMS support, including Oracle, Ingres, Sybase, Rdb, and others
• Support for both IP-over-DECnet and DECnet over IP
TCPware’s unique modular architecture lets you choose only the services you need, individually, in any combination or as part of a complete integrated package.
TCPware is easy to install and use because it uses a single base configuration procedure for all services, making it easy to add new services as you need them. You’ll never have to reboot the system when reconfiguration, starting, or stopping any TCPware service.
After careful consideration, Digital chose Process Software to help them deliver a higher quality TCP/IP solution to the VMS market. Through this partnership, customers are assured that Process Software will support any future changes Digital makes to OpenVMS. Furthermore, this partnership solidifies Process Software’s ongoing commitment to TCP/IP for OpenVMS.
The TCPware family also supports RSX, RT-11, TSX, and IAS operating systems for the Digital PDP-11 family of computers.
Process Software’s Professional Services program has a well-deserved reputation for excellence. Services include TCP/IP network consulting, software maintenance, training, hotline support, on-line resources, 24-hour support — in short, everything you need to keep your Process Software products and your network operating at peak efficiency.
Process Software Corporation has developed a complete family of award-winning Purveyor WebServers for Windows NT, Windows 95, NetWare, and OpenVMS. Loaded with features, the Purveyor server has been recognized as a leading Web server solution for developing corporate intranets and creating an Internet presence.
Purveyor Encrypt WebServer for OpenVMS is the first fully support commercial Web server for Digital Equipment Corporation’s VAX and Alpha platforms. Using the Purveyor WebServer, you can enable character cell-based VMS applications with a point-and-click, GUI-based technology; develop a corporate intranet for a variety of applications, such as departmental publishing, training, and general efficient dissemination of information, or create a robust external Web presence — all within a secure Web environment.
Features of the Purveyor WebServer family include:
• Support for TCPware and all other TCP/IP implementations for OpenVMS
• Extensive, easy-to-configure security features including SSL encryption, key management facilities, basic authentication, and access control
• Database access from a Web browser
• Takes full advantage of SNMP functionality
• Can be configured to run in a clustered environment for high availability
• Support for multiple IP address from a single Web server
• Provides complete transaction logging facilities and remote management capabilities
• Includes sample forms with accompanying Common Gateway Interface (CGI) scripts
• Features HTTP, FTP, and Gopher proxy server support
If you’re not currently running TCP/IP software, the TCPware Internet Server provides an integrated solution, combining TCPware services of your choice and the Purveyor WebServer for OpenVMS.
Process Software Corporation offers a one-stop resource for TCP/IP solutions. The company’s complete line of product and service offerings include TCP/IP networking software for OpenVMS and award-winning WebServer software for OpenVMS, Windows NT, Windows 95, and NetWare.
Established in 1984, Process Software designs, develops, and markets TCP/IP and Internet/Intranet software solutions and services world wide.
Privately held and self-funded, Process Software’s ongoing commitment is to develop advanced, leading-edge technologies for the TCP/IP and Web software markets and by backing them all with one of the most comprehensive service and support programs in the industry.
Process Software takes pride in being your business solutions provider. Our charter is to remain a leading independent world-wide supplier of high performance TCP/IP and Internet/Intranet software solutions while setting leadership standards for service and support.
The following companies are among those who have chosen Process Software Corporation:
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AT&T Technologies
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Motorola
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