Thoughts from the field on Windows Server 2008 - NAP

Denys Kovalenko works for A1 Computers in Cabinteely (just south of Dublin).  He's been evaluating Network Access Protection for a while now, and wanted to share his experiences with you.

"I have been testing a great feature of Windows 2008 Server, called Network Access Protection (NAP).

I have been testing NAP since Longhorn Beta 3 and Vista RTM.  It looks very promising, especially with the number of hardware manufactures who are going to support 802.1x NAP in their network devices.  That fact it is controlled by policy makes it more interesting.  The NAP configuration wizard makes it's easy to deploy, but I personally like manual configuration.  Netsh NAP commands makes it easy for scripting.

I have been messing with Windows XP SP3 NAP, but haven't managed to get it going at the moment, but I believe that by the time Windows 2008 Server ships, SP3 will be officially released and tested.

The idea to protect corporate networks from unidentified laptops used for work and for home comes just in time in growing viruses and spyware problems.

I'm looking forward to getting Windows 2008 Server RTM to immediately deploy NAP enforcement for my company and its customers."

It's great to hear real stories from local IT Pro's - if you have something you want to share, please get in touch.

Dave.