I have seen questions on the Palm computing newsgroups asking if there's a program that will reformat a Palm device's flash automatically if someone fails to enter the password correctly after a certain number of tries or after the Palm device in question hasn't been used for a certain number of days. While JAWZ DataGator won't reformat the flash, it can keep unauthorized people out of your Palm computer-based data.

Encryption protection
JAWZ DataGator (at http://www.jawzinc.com) comes in two versions: Standard and Professional. The Standard version protects only the big four built-in Palm applications (Address, Date Book, Memo Pad, and To Do List) as well as the Expense and Mail applications. The Professional version, on the other hand, can encrypt data in all applications.

I was provided a two-week trial version of the Standard edition, with 448-bit Blowfish encryption. There's also a 168-bit Triple DES version. Blowfish performance is said to be about twice as fast as Triple DES, but I couldn't verify this independently.

The price of the Standard edition is $39.95, and the price of the Professional version is $49.95. If DataGator interests you, it's probably worth the extra $10 for the Professional version, especially if your information is in third-party databases, such as a DOC file, or one that synchronizes to a major production database, such as DB2 (at http://www-4.ibm.com/software/data/db2/) or Sybase (at http://www.sybase.com).

Installation
DataGator installation is easy. The setup program will take care of almost everything for Windows users, but Linux and Mac users must use the Palm Install program (or its equivalent) to prepare the DataGator files for synchronization. About the only thing you need to know is what Palm OS version your Palm device is using.

Next time you HotSync, five files are installed: HackMaster, JAWZ BigNumlib.pdb, JAWZBlowfishlib.pdb, JAWZDataGator.prc, and JAWZGator.prc, as shown in Figure A.

FIGURE A


These are the files that need to be installed. Roll over picture for a larger image.

A sixth file, a filter database called JAWSFilterDB, is created on the Palm device and contains information about what you want to have encrypted.

If you already have a license for HackMaster, you needn't reinstall it. Be careful to note the documentation is clear that the version of HackMaster provided with DataGator is limited for use with DataGator only. My advice? Spend the $5 and buy a licensed version of HackMaster. There are many different and useful hacks you can try if you haven't done so already.