Communications News articles from January 2004

Communications News archives from January 2004

Looming storm.(Editor's Note)(Editorial)
January 1, 2004... While carrier operations are not Communications News' usual "beat," we are keeping an eye on the looming tsunami between the public network carriers and the new voice over IP (VoIP) service providers. As this battle unfolds, enterprise...

Prescription for protection.(Trends)
January 1, 2004... Network security threats from the Internet are becoming more sophisticated and more aggressive, according to Arthur Wong, a vice president at Cupertino, Calif. based Symantec Corp.--and they are spreading faster, where human reaction time may...

Events.(Trends)(Brief Article)(Calendar)
January 1, 2004... [check] Internet Telephony Conference and Expo, Feb. 11-13, Miami, delivers educational programs on issues and trends in IP telephony, including enterprise and government solutions, www.tmcnet.com/ itexpo [check] InfoSec World Conference...

Number portability? Better wait.(Trends)(Mobile Competency)
January 1, 2004... A new report from Mobile Competency (www.mobilecompetency.com), an independent analyst firm for the mobile and wireless market based in North Providence, R.I., finds that CIOs and IT managers should avoid wireless number portability (WNP) until...

Head of the class: CIO Kevin Palmer employs value-added services to solve critical network problems for his growing Missouri school district.(Missouri's Francis Howell School)(Cover Story)
January 1, 2004... When Kevin Palmer took over as chief information officer of Missouri's Francis Howell School District two years ago, he was confronted with a mixed bag of poorly operated networks and technologies. The sprawling school district's communications...

Last-mile fiber.(BICSI Winter, 2004)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Booth 908 The Ethernet PON (E-PON) solution consists of an Optical Line Terminal (Off) and an Optical Network Unit (ONU). The 1-U form factor OLT supports up to four PON ports. Each PON port supports 625 Mb of symmetrical bandwidth shared...

Heavy-duty labeling.(BICSI Winter, 2004)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Booth 604 The RhinoPRO heavy-duty labeling tool combines a portable printer with labels specifically developed for tough applications around an enterprise facility, including wire and cable, panels, machinery and tool cribs. Hot keys...

Fiber-module housings.(BICSI Winter, 2004)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Booth 1020 These Rack Mount Housing are suitable for any cable design and can be used with both fiber distribution modules and standard adapter plates. The housings ore available in 1-U and 4-U rack-space versions and can fit into a...

Portable network troubleshooting.(BICSI Winter, 2004)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Booth 521 Designed for field installation or maintenance of existing networks, the Mini-OTDR is a low-cost, fully Functional OTDR that is small enough to fit in a tool box. The device is available in a standard version, with a distance...

Ergonomic patch cords.(BICSI Winter, 2004)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Booth 510 The GigaBIX PS6+ Patch Cords feature a compact and ergonomic design that improves accessibility to connectors, making access for moves, adds and changes faster and easier. The cable has a rugged blade design, with a lead frame...

Modular optical system.(BICSI Winter, 2004)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Booth 507 The Momentum modular preterminated fiber-optic system combines advanced ribbon backbone cabling technology with high-performance optical cassettes, enabling simplified structured cabling design, minimal installation time and...

Detailed infrastructure reporting.(BICSI Winter, 2004)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Booth 603 LinkWare Stats simplifies the reporting of cable test results and provides meaningful performance indicators. The cable test-analysis software option works with the company's LinkWare cable test-management solution to transform...

Compact patch box.(BICSI Winter, 2004)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Booth 623 The CAT 5e Mobile Patch Bo provides a clean and flexibl [TEXT UNREADABLE IN ORIGINAL SOURCE] solution for small installations Designed for easy punch-dow [TEXT UNREADABLE IN ORIGINAL SOURCE] capability, the patch box can b [TEXT...

Enhanced fiber cable.(BICSI Winter, 2004)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Booth 506 This 50-micron GIGAlite multimode fiber features guaranteed Gigabit Ethernet distances up to 750 m using 850-nm vertical-cavity-surface-emitting lasers. The fiber also provides improved performance at 10 Gbps, with distances of...

Connector enclosures.(BICSI Winter, 2004)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Booth 314 Pretium Connector Housings are rack-mountable closet connector housings designed for LAN and data-center environments. The housings are available in both 1-U and 4-U versions, both of which are four inches deeper than typical...

Move beyond patch management: correlation threat-management engines can reduce the time needed to check syslog files.(Special focus: local area networks)
January 1, 2004... Patch management is a widely used but rarely discussed method of shoring up servers with operating system fixes as soon as vulnerabilities are discovered. Recent worms, however, show that patching is a failing strategy, Some of the patches...

Is your network really protected? Know who has broken in or is attempting to break in and how viruses are creating havoc.(Special focus: local area networks)
January 1, 2004... Firewalls have become an integral part of most organizations' security perimeter, with new features continually being added, such as antivirus, content filtering and intrusion detection/prevention, to help security-conscious customers who are...

Buyers guide.(Special focus: local area networks)(Buyers Guide)
January 1, 2004... The first portion of this Local Area Networks Buyers Guide, the Product Guide, lists the various products in this category, and the companies that make those products. The second section, the Company Guide, provides phone and fax numbers, and...

Gigabit switch.(New products)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... The FriendlyNET GX5-424W 24+4 Web-managed Gigabit Ethernet switch contains four Gigabit Ethernet ports for running two copper and two Fiber cables simultaneously, if needed. Web management allows all features to be accessible from an...

Scalable storage.(New products)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... The NetFORCE 1800 is a compact, midrange NAS filer for small and medium businesses. The filer provides modular scalability up to a full terabyte of storage in 2-U of rack space, and users can ultimately scale in multigigabyte to multiterabyte...

Advanced routers.(New products)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... The Router 3000 family, which includes three router models with different WAN interfaces, solves complexity issues when connecting remote sites to branch offices and headquarters. The solution protects data that travels between remote office...

Large-capacity storage.(New products)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... The Snap Server 14000 is available with 3 TB of capacity and enhanced features for the entry-level enterprise market. The unit enables enterprise IT managers to consolidate file servers into a centralized system for information sharing across...

Power-over-Ethernet switch.(New products)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... The ES3526-PoE L2/L4 Fast Ethernet stackable switch has 24 10/ 100BASE-T/TX auto MDI/ MDIX ports and two combo ports for fiber or copper gigabit uplink modules. Fully compliant with IEEE802.3f standards, its power-over-Ethernet capability...

Hard-drive backup.(New products)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... With as few as two external hard drives, a business can implement an offsite backup strategy using Retrospect Disk-to-Disk for Windows servers. The solution relies on backup sets to organize data and transfer it to disk. A backup set can...

NAS solution.(New products)(network attached storsge)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... The POPnetserver 1000 is a family of NAS servers sized for small businesses and remote offices. The product delivers protection with flexible RAID options, including RAID 5 for fault tolerance, and infinite data backup to tape drive for...

PoE-enabled switch.(New products)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... The ProCurve Switch 2626-PWR is a 26-port switch with 24 auto-sensing 10/100 ports and two dual-personality ports for 10/100/1000 or mini-GBIC connectivity. Eliminating the need for a separate power source, the switch supports IP phones or...

Cluster computing.(New products)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... The HyperBlade Cluster solution is a high-performance and high-density computing, Linux-based cluster. With a blade server architecture, the solution supports up to 80 blades/160 CPUs in one cabinet and utilizes the Linux operating system. A...

Firm takes control of global traffic: new bandwidth-hungry application prompted the need for a traffic-management solution.(Internet/WAN)(Eagle Global Logistics )
January 1, 2004... More than trucks, ships and planes are needed to move freight-information, and plenty of it, is needed. Just ask Karl Wighaman, senior network manager at Eagle Global Logistics (EGL), a leading provider of transportation and freight solutions...

New network not a gamble: resort and casino boosts revenues by taking data services capabilities in house.(Wide Area Networks)
January 1, 2004... On the subject of business, Alex Terry is no gambling man. He needs a network he can absolutely rely on. Though his network was working fine, Terry, director of in formation technology for the Mandalay Resort Group in Las Vegas, was looking for...

VoIP: is your network ready? There is plenty to consider, including the cabling plant, when switching to IP telephony.(Voice Networks)
January 1, 2004... Matching carrier-grade voice quality is a unique challenge to the voice over IP (VoIP) services being introduced in today's market. With everything moving toward IP, can this medium be used to actually create a carrier-grade service? A...

VoIP links global company: call center operations at seven locations are streamlined, while costs are lowered.(Voice Networks)(Alpha Thought)
January 1, 2004... The possibility of cost-free interoffice communications connecting workers in India with those in Chicago via a simple four-digit extension seemed the perfect solution to accommodate Alpha Thought's tremendous growth. The Chicago-based company,...

Optical data transmission.(Wireless access points and devices)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... The Canobeam DT-100 Series is a versatile, point-to-point, optical-beam transmission system that transmits data at speeds from 25 Mbps to 1.25 Gbps, over distances from 20 m to 2 km, requires no FCC licensing and sets up in minutes. The...

Universal access point.(Wireless access points and devices)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... The EliteConnect Universal 2.4GHz/5GHz Wireless Access Point conforms to the 802.11a and 802.11g standards to provide universal a/b/g connectivity. Able to provide flexible, secure, high-performance wireless access to more than 128 simultaneous...

54-Mbps access point.(Wireless access points and devices)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... The ZyAIR G-1000 is a wireless LAN access point compliant with the IEEE 802.11g standard, delivering data rates of up to 54 Mbps. Standard security features include IEEE 802.1x user authentication and Wi-Fi protected access. The G-1000 allows...

Versatile access point.(Wireless access points and devices)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... The enterprise-class WG302 ProSafe 802.11g Wireless Access Point offers advanced security and management features, along with high-performance speeds and range, for small to midsize businesses and hot spot deployments. The IEEE...

Extend wireless coverage.(Wireless access points and devices)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... SpotCell Viewer is a Windows-based software that monitors product performance and allows for the remote control of SpotCell adaptive repeater deployments that extend wireless coverage inside entire buildings or targeted spots within buildings....

NAS gains traction: simplicity, expanded features and low costs spotlight network-attached storage.(Guest Column)(network-attached storage)
January 1, 2004... Storage has emerged as a critical component of the enterprise infrastructure. With a direct impact on data accessibility, employee productivity and, at the extreme, disaster recovery, storage enables enterprises to leverage their information...