Bangalore: Hewlett-Packard India P Ltd on February 19 introduced software enhancements for the HP Procurve Switch 4108GL and the HP Procurve Switch 2500 series providing increased security, high availability and ease of use to customers, according to an official press release.

IEEE 802.1x is a key security feature for network access. It provides port based access control that requires the user to authenticate before accessing the network.

Once authenticated, the user can be dynamically authorised for network services, including VLAN assignment, and usage can be tracked for billing purposes. HP Port Security with mac lock-down protection configures access to a port by specifying mac addresses that are allowed to send inbound traffic through the port, the release said.

By adding SSH, a de facto standard for securing remote access connections over IP networks, HP is offering customers the ability to encrypt all transmitted confidential data, including passwords, binary files and administrative commands.

HP has further enhanced the Switch 4108GL and Switch 2500 series by adding Rapid Convergence Spanning Tree, a new IEEE standard that offers fast detection and recovery from link failure. This feature is key to providing customers with a higher degree of network availability and physical link redundancy, the release added.