Equinux has released VPN Tracker 6, a major new version of the Mac OS X virtual private network client for almost any VPN gateway or router, in cluding. Version 6 adds a number of new features, including support for Windows applications running in virtual machines (such as Parallels Desktop and VMware Fusion). VPN Tracker 6 enables Windows programs to share the VPN tunnel with Mac applications.

VPN Tracker 6 supports additional standards to take advantage of more features of VPN gateways. VPN Tracker 6 supports DHCP-renewing and rekeying to keep connections going longer. VPN Tracker 6 also supports Dead Peer Detection, a feature used by Watchguard, Fortinent and SonicWALL, and the Hybrid Mode feature used by CheckPoint and Cisco.

Also new in Version 6 is support for the Snow Leopard's 64-bit mode and the IPv6 transport protocol. In addition to IPsec, VPN Tracker 6 can control Mac OS X L2TP and PPTP connections.

Equinux has added workflow automation aimed at mobile users with a new Secure Desktop feature.

Users and administrators can organize documents, internet address, applications, and scripts to automate tasks such as mounting servers and collecting email over different VPN connections, or even multiple connections.

Administrators can configure multiple Secure Desktops to deploy to different users. The VPN Tracker 6 deployment system can automatically create disk images that include a VPN Tracker client, a pre-configured Secure Desktop with VPN connection, and the software-license. The software distribution is based on a voucher-system.

VPN Tracker 6 is available in three editions and runs on Mac OS X 10.4, 10.5 and 10.6 (Snow Leopard):

• VPN Tracker Personal Edition for single users
• VPN Tracker 6 Professional Edition, which can access multiple remote networks at the same time and can create, export and deploy connections to other remote users.
• VPN Tracker 6 Player complements VPN Tracker Professional for enterprise users to simply need establish VPN connections.