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Cisco NAC vs. Microsoft NAP

The Promise: Host admission-control schemes aim to protect your network from your own PCs by allowing or denying network access based on the health and security status of the machines.

The Players: The big dogs are Cisco Systems' Network Admission Control (NAC) and Microsoft's Network Access Protection (NAP). Other hardware and software vendors also offer admission-control solutions.

The Prospects: Every network admission solution today is proprietary, and locks network buyers into a particular architecture. The Trusted Network Connect group hopes to organize a standard specification to promote interoperability, but de facto standards will likely be driven by Microsoft and Cisco.


It's 9 a.m. Do you know where your PCs have been? Like rock 'n roll roadies or Girls Gone Wild, your corporate laptops may have hooked up with any number of strange networks or missed a patch cycle while on an extended road trip. Even your buttoned-down desktop machines could be trouble: AV signatures may be out of date, or a Trojan or worm might lurk somewhere in the file system. Because they plug directly into the LAN, these machines do an end run around your carefully crafted perimeter screens and expose your network to danger.

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