PacketFence 1.9.0 released

The Inverse Team is pleased to announce the immediate availability of
PacketFence 1.9.0. This is a major release bringing new features, new
hardware support, several enhancements, improvements to documentation
and a load of small fixes. This release has been thoroughly tested in
several environments and we consider it ready for production use.

We *vastly improved* our website for the 1.9.0 release. Visit it for all
details: http://www.packetfence.org

=== What is PacketFence? ===

PacketFence is a fully supported, trusted, Free and Open Source network
access control (NAC) system. Boosting an impressive feature set including:

  * Registration and remediation through a captive portal
  * Detection of abnormal network activities using Snort IDS
  * Proactive vulnerability scans using Nessus
  * Isolation of problematic devices
  * 802.1X for wired and wireless networks
  * Wireless integration for all provided features
  * Supports complex and heterogeneous environments
  * VoIP / IP Telephony support and more!

A set of screenshots is available from
http://www.packetfence.org/tour/screenshots.html and a set of videos is
available from http://www.packetfence.org/tour/videos.html

=== Changes Since Previous Release ===

New
  * Official Linux 64 bit support

New Hardware Support
  * Cisco Wireless Services Module (WiSM)
  * Cisco Integrated Services Routers (ISR) 1800 Series
  * Cisco Catalyst 3750 Series
  * Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series
  * Foundry FastIron 4802 Port security and Voice over IP support
(feature sponsored by an entity who preferred to remain anonymous)
  * HP Procurve 3400cl (tested by roelof)
  * SMC SMC8824M and SMC8848M in Port Security (feature sponsored by
Seattle Pacific University developed with the help of SMC)

New Features
  * Node category support, you can assign different VLANs or whitelist
violations based on a node's category (#968)
  * Added support for Floating Network Devices (See Admin Guide for details)

Enhancements
  * Improved error reporting in the Web administration panel and CLI
(#847, #898, #899, #964, #993)
  * More information available in Node Lookup (IP, DHCP lease)
  * Improved database layer (more robust and logs errors)
  * pfsetvlan is more resistant to configuration mistakes and reports
them (#766)
  * Net-SNMP 5.4 support (#940 Thanks to Maikel)
  * FreeRADIUS 2.x support (#1007)
  * @ character now allowed in person id (pid). This is very common in
Active Directory environment.
  * New admin authentication mechanism added (disabled by default)
  * New debugging features (disabled by default)
  * New DHCP fingerprints
  * Optional backup script in addons/ now archives old records
  * New helper synchronization scripts in addons/high-availability
  * Little improvements (#866, #886, #911, #916, #952, #975)

Documentation improvements
  * Install guide more accurate
  * Added directions to configure PacketFence in a routed environment to
the admin guide
  * Updated the High-Availability section with details about DRBD and
HeartBeat v1
  * More MySQL tips (#951)
  * Fixed Procurve 2600 switch configuration (Thanks to Andrew
Niemantsverdriet!)

Bug fixes
  * Performance fixes (#908, #910)
  * Captive portal stability fixes (#892, #961)
  * Mitigated Net::Telnet problems with perl threads (#903, #907)
  * Proper violation description shown in violation edit (#922)
  * Fixed RPM spec to create package packetfence-remote-snort-sensor
again (#888)
  * Fixed PacketFence RPM upgrade bug if your version is lower than
1.8.5 (#931)
  * Fixed rare port-security problems with stacked switches or switches
with large ifIndex (#921)
  * Fixed problems with DHCP Fingerprint submission
  * Fixed call to non-existing script lookup_node.pl in pfdhcplistener
(#858)
  * Correct VLAN information shown in Node Lookup (#893)
  * Minor corrections to the Admin Web UI
  * Clarified some error messages
  * Misc. stability and general fixes (#833, #885, #868, #869, #896,
#923, #927, #946, #950)

... and more. See the ChangeLog file for the complete list of changes
and the UPGRADE file for notes about upgrading. Both files are in the
PacketFence distribution.

=== Getting PacketFence ===

PacketFence is free software and is distributed under the GNU GPL. As
such, you are free to download and try it by either getting the new
release from:

http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/packetfence/packetfenc...

or by getting the sources from the official monotone server using the
instructions at
http://www.packetfence.org/development/source_code_reposi...

Documentation about the installation and configuration of PacketFence is
available from:

http://www.packetfence.org/documentation/documentation.html

=== How Can I Help ? ===

PacketFence is a collaborative effort in order to create the best Free
and Open Source NAC solution. There are multiple ways you can contribute
to the project:

  * Documentation reviews, enhancements and translations
  * Feature requests or by sharing your ideas
  * Participate in the discussion on mailing lists
(http://www.packetfence.org/support/community.html)
  * Patches for bugs or enhancements
  * Provide new translations of remediation pages

=== Getting Support ===

For any questions, do not hesitate to contact us by writing to
support@inverse.ca

You can also fill our online form
(http://www.inverse.ca/about/contact.html) and a representative from
Inverse will contact you.

Inverse offers professional services to organizations willing to secure
their wired and wireless networks with the PacketFence solution.

Have fun with the new release!
-- 
Olivier Bilodeau
obilodeau@inverse.ca  ::  +1.514.447.4918 *115  ::  www.inverse.ca
Inverse inc. :: Leaders behind SOGo (www.sogo.nu) and PacketFence
(www.packetfence.org)