Just a quick post to remind folks that Microsoft released a hotfix back in 2008 (based on the file time-stamps)  to add AES ciphers to the built in cipher options. This is a step up from the standard RC4 ciphers and offers 256bit encryption.

This is documented in http://support.microsoft.com/kb/948963.

The added ciphers are:

• TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA
• AES128-SHA
  
• TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA
• AES256-SHA

Applications using the schannel.dll for security will be able to use these additional ciphers.

Yes, I know Windows 2003 is a bit long in the tooth, but it still has a fairly large installed user base.