Shrew VPN client works with Cisco, Juniper, Checkpoint, Fortinet, Zywall and many other VPN Appliances. I have used it successfully with Juniper SSG and CISCO ASA and it worked great.
Why should you use third party VPN Client?
There are many cases where Shrewsoft VPN comes handy. In my case it saved my butt when I discovered that Juniper VPN Client sucked and was not usable. The same experience I had with Cisco 64 bit vpn client. What is more, it was not supported in Windows 7. I spent hours looking for a solution how to make Juniper VPN client work with Windows 7. There was none. Then, luckily I found Shrew VPN. Not only did it work great with Juniper, it also worked with Cisco ASA and PIX. If you need to connect to many VPN appliances, you will notice how cool it is to have one VPN Client that supports different vendors. I can think of two scenarios where universal VPN client can be really useful.
IT Technicians have to connect to several VPN networks. Sometimes have multiple clients installed can cause serious problems, even a blue screen on a Windows PC.
One the other hand, end users can have problems if the client is not reliable like is the case with Juniper client. In this case, you can fix reliable VPN connection by using a third party VPN Client.
Shrewsoft VPN
Shresoft VPN supports many VPN appliances and that makes it really useful. Screen looks like any other VPN Client, only difference being that you can see several profiles utilising different vendors. It supports importing Cisco client profiles, and you can also export them if you have to share them with your mates or just to have a backup.
Universal VPN client Shrewsoft VPN supports Linux, BSD, Windows 32bit & 64bit and Windows 8 support was added not long ago. Initial steps for OSX port have commenced. With version 2.2.1 Shrewsoft introduced two versions, standard (free for personal and business use) and Professional $19.99 (with additional features – Split DNS and Secure Domain Login support).
There are several commercial products that have multi vendor VPN support, but they cost a lot. If you are looking for VPN client alternative, try Shreshoft VPN. It’s free, and if you need some of additional features, Professional version won’t break your bank account.
Some of my friends also start using it, mainly because of multivendor support.
You can download Shresoft VPN from their website.
Leave a Reply