1. A distributed computing system allowing secure external access to a secure network, the system comprising: a target server within the secure network; a border server within the secure network, the border server connectable to the target server by a first communications link; a client outside the secure network, the client connectable to the border server by a second communications link, the client and the border server configured to support secure sockets layer communication over the second communications link; a user authentication system located at least partially within the secure network, the secure network configured to allow direct access to the target server by a user only after the user is authenticated by the user authentication system; and a uniform resource locator transformer which modifies non-secure uniform resource locators in data being sent from the target server to the client by replacing them with corresponding secure uniform resource locators to promote continued use of secure sockets layer communication.