From: Philippe Nave <pdn@drmail.dr.att.com>
Date: Thu, 9 Feb 95 07:58:30 PST
To: ecarp <ecarp@netcom.com>
Subject: Re: Best encryption device driver for MS-DOS?
Message-ID: <2F3A49A4@mspost.dr.att.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Ho, cyphernauts!

My $.02 votes for SecureDevice as an MS-DOS encryption mechanism because:
  1) It works within a file (or files) rather than requiring a dedicated
     hard disk partition; you can put up and take down encrypted "drives"
     without wiping out the whole disk drive and repartitioning. (VERY
     handy when you suddenly need to increase the size of your "drive"
     *RIGHT NOW*).
  2) It keeps a regular DOS directory structure within the "drive" file;
     you set up the "drive" one time and then just throw stuff in it at
     will. You can encrypt single files a variety of ways, but then you
     have to manage them all - this way, you just chuck 'em in the safe
     together.
  3) In a pinch, you can move the whole encrypted "drive" from place to
     place - since it's a self-contained data file and is encrypted
     throughout, you can FTP it all over the place as a binary file
     without hurting it.

The only time I've gotten in trouble with it was when I had SmartDrive 
turned
on for the encrypted "drive" and went down hard; now, I have a SMARTDRV -D:
or whatever in my AUTOEXEC so that SmartDrive won't try to buffer I/O to
the encrypted drive.

My one and only gripe - it won't work under Windows NT 3.5 ! I have to boot
DOS (blech!) to get at the encrypted drive. (Hint, Hint, Hint....)

    -Philippe