SecureCRT is a GUI-based SSH / Telnet client and a terminal emulator that features support for a wide array of protocols such as SSH, TAPI, serial and rlogin. Its list of capabilities includes secure transfers, highly configurable sessions and SSH encryption, to name the most important ones.
Even though it quickly became a popular choice among network administrators, SecureCRT is often criticized for its selling price. While development and networking companies are able to afford this cost, day-to-day users are less likely to spend as much on a Telnet client, especially that free emulators are available.
Such an application is PuTTY, considered to be one of SecureCRT’s fiercest competitors. Although PuTTY is free, SecureCRT has a great deal of advantages, one of them being the higher level of security, which makes the comparison unnecessary, in our opinion.
SecureCRT features the most accessible user interface that we’ve seen in a terminal emulator, allowing you to create and customize up to five thousand tabbed sessions. In addition, the application facilitates encrypted logons and provides flexible authentication options.
Repetitive tasks can be processed via scripting languages such as VBScript, PerlScript, Python and Jscript. SecureCRT also bundles a script recorder, which makes it easier to automate routines.
File transfers can be achieved via the integration with SecureFX. The sessions can be shared between these two applications, thus enabling the possibility to run FTP, SFTP and SCP transfers without the need to re-enter passwords.
In conclusion, SecureCRT is definitely worth your while. Compared to similar products, it’s very comfortable to work with, it features extensive protocol support, it encrypts the data using a wide array of ciphers (AES, Twofish, Blowfish, 3DES and RC4) and it allows you to use WSH scripting engines in order to automate tasks. Considering all of its capabilities, we find that SecureCRT’s price is fair.
Limitations:
· 30-day trial
· Nag screen
What's New in This Release:
New features:
· Added support for dependent sessions so that a connection can be made to a jump host or SSH gateway before the session is connected.
· Added support for the Kermit file transfer protocol. Binary and ASCII transfers are supported.
· SSH2 on Windows: Added support for SHA1 in RSA signatures, which allows X.509 certificates to be used in FIPS mode and other settings where MD5 cannot be used.
· A button action can be sent to all connected tabbed or tiled sessions by pressing SHIFT+ on the button.
· Added a character send delay option to wait for a text prompt.
· Added a new logging substitution variable "%P", which inserts the session's port.
· Added the ability to copy ANSI text to the clipboard, which allows attributes such as color and font to be preserved on the clipboard.
· Added support for sending Xterminal escape sequences for CTRL+ keys.
· Added the ability to specify ANSI colors for individual sessions in addition to the global option.
· Windows: Added support for the Wyse label l...