I compile a lot of software on my laptop, and I *certainly notice* the difference between my office laptop (no encryption) and my travel laptop (with FDE). The laptops are exactly the same, with the same image loaded. The only difference is the FDE software that is installed on the travel laptop.
That is why I did an analysis of various FDE solutions to find the best one for my needs. The key thing I was interested was that it must be AES 256, reasonably fast, inexpensive, and offer key recovery in case of password loss. The final outcome of the analysis is available @ http://www.xml-dev.com/blog/index.php?action=viewtopic&id=250 Compusec is great for home / personal use. It is cheap i.e. $0.00 (Free), and does not slow down the computer as much as the other products. But that is because it only support 128 bit AES, which is a major drawback as most enterprise settings require at least 256 bit AES. Compusec also has a great online support forum where you can get your questions answered by Compusec employees and other experienced users. I ended up purchasing both Utimaco and Pointsec. They are excellent products. They both support AES 256. The downside is that they are little bit expensive (Pointsec:$170 ; Utimaco:$200) and slow. The best thing is they both offer great password / encryption key recovery capabilities. You can create a recovery disk with both products. They also offer password recovery using Challenge / Response sequence, where the IT Helpdesk can perform a Challenge/Response sequence with the user to help them recover the password or reset it to a new one. Off course Challenge/Response password recovery is the NOT most secure, especially if the user is remote, but you have the option to disable it on the laptop if you want. --------------------------------------------------------------------- The Cryptography Mailing List Unsubscribe by sending "unsubscribe cryptography" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]