Communications News articles from July 2004

Communications News archives from July 2004

On the hot spot.(Editor's Note)
July 1, 2004... Your organization does not use wireless as part of its LAN, so you are not all that interested in the subject of wireless "hot spots." After all, they are consumer oriented and have little to do with your wired network, other than allowing...

911 over VoIP: whose responsibility?(Trends)
July 1, 2004... The debate over whether VoIP calls are an information service" or a regulated "telecommunications service" may rage on for some time in this election year. At stake are access charges, universal service funds and telecom excise taxes....

Events.(Brief Article)(Calendar)
July 1, 2004... BICSI Fall Conference, Aug. 30-Sept. 2, Seattle, offers educational courses for IT professionals. and an exhibition featuring cabling and infrastructure products for the enterprise. www.bicsi.org Network Security Conference, Sept. 13-15,...

Spam filters, front and center.(Feedback)(Letter to the Editor)
July 1, 2004... I'm responding to your excellent editorial about antispam bottlenecks in the May ComNews. That sure hit a nerve! I e-mail news and meeting announcements to about 360 members of the IEEE Lexington, Ky., section. I can't do it from home...

Lassoed! Texas school board association ropes in member responsiveness and call agent productivity with advanced contact center capabilities.(Cover Story)
July 1, 2004... Rick Tillotson is a student of best-practice telecommunications. He has to be. As telecom manager for the nonprofit Texas Association of School Boards (TASB), his hands are full keeping TASB responsive to the wide-ranging needs and expectations...

VoIP prescription cures ailment: cost reductions, ease of use, additional functionality spur telephony change.(Voice Networks)
July 1, 2004... Eight different phone systems and more than 100 individual phone numbers for seven office locations spelled communications chaos for Consultants in Gastroenterology (CIG), an 11-physician, two-nurse practitioner firm serving the greater Kansas...

VoIP "ices" telecom expenditures: manufacturer dumps patchwork phone system for multiple function alternative.(Voice Networks)
July 1, 2004... Headquartered in the Los Angeles area, Anthony International is a developer and manufacturer of refrigeration and shelving products for an eclectic group of consumers, including supermarkets, warehouse clubs, service stations, florists and...

Power over Ethernet for VoIP.(Voice Networks)
July 1, 2004... As organizations migrate to high-speed, sophisticated network infrastructures to provide services such as voice over IP (VoIP), the fundamental issue of reliability of service remains a concern. Unlike plain old telephone service, where power...

IP network management.(New products)(Prominence Networks)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... MediaIP Release 3.0 is a service control-and-management solution for IP telephony and videoconferencing. For enterprises that have adopted the DiffServ quality-of-service model to transport real-time traffic, such as voice and...

Wireless VoIP management.(New products)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... The WLAN IP Telephony Manager 2245 is an Ethernet LAN appliance that works with wire less access points to provide quality of service on the wireless LAN. The solution optimizes the connection between handsets and the call server to support the...

SIP routing.(New products)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... The Windows-based Interaction SIP Proxy-Advanced Version enables organizations to intelligently route SIP-based messages over IP networks, and includes fault-tolerant routing, load balancing and advanced security. Designed to work with any...

Managing the extended enterprise: remote monitoring tools can improve productivity and make best use of limited resources.(Remote Management)
July 1, 2004... The local area network on which today's organizations depend is more sophisticated and geographically widespread than ever before, spanning distances up to 100 kilometers thanks to an interwoven tapestry of copper and fiber links. Managing this...

Consider remote-control options.(Remote Management)(Graphics Device Interface)
July 1, 2004... In order to control a remote PC, information must he transmitted via an Internal network or modem-to-modem connection from one PC to the next. More often than nut, remote-control applications rely on bitmapping as a means of communication...

The outsourced alternative: the distributed enterprise model presents technical challenges met by managed IP services.(Outsourcing)
July 1, 2004... Enterprise IT today faces dual challenges: expanding networking capabilities to support strategic corporate initiatives aimed at boosting productivity and customer responsiveness, while simultaneously holding down IT labor and operational...

The business case.(Outsourcing)
July 1, 2004... There are two major issues with why more enterprises are not outsourcing. The first is that the outsourcing approach that is often pitched to CIOs and CTOs does not reflect how complex and important WANs have become in the past 10 years. For...

Disaster recovery on a budget: learn how an enterprise solved its storage needs through replication software.(Business Continuity)
July 1, 2004... Covanta Energy Corp. produces more than 800 megawatts of energy annually by processing 10 million tons of America's municipal solid waste. The company operates its plants under Environmental Protection Agency guidelines, continuously measuring...

Optical fiber: blown or conventional? Costs, and ease of installation and repair are determining factors.(Infrastructure)(Blown optical fiber)
July 1, 2004... Blown optical fiber (BOF) is an alternative to the standard installation of a fiber-optic cable plant. British Telecom first developed BOF in the early 1980s, and it was used first commercially in Europe and then Japan. BOF is used in both...

Fan tray.(Enclosure and video products)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... The Fan Tray Assembly includes three, six and nine fans per tray, allowing for an airflow of 100 CFM per fan. The 1U 19" fan assemblies have a depth range of 7" to 17.25". The units feature a standard black finish and include an 84" long,...

Rugged backplane enclosure.(Enclosure and video products)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... The 4U Rugged Enclosure is a passive backplane-based, rackmount enclosure that features five high-output fans to provide cooling--blowing air from front to rear through the enclosure. Easily accessible 3 1/2" and 5 1/4" modular drive bays...

VGA extension.(Enclosure and video products)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... The Mini-Cat VGA-to-CAT5 Converter extends PC or TV video signals up to 1,200 feet. The Mini-Cat model UV1 consists of a sender and receiver sold together as a pair, with cables specific to the user's video output requirements. The solution...

Seismic enclosures.(Enclosure and video products)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... Type 45S Seismic Cabinet Enclosures have a high strength-to-weight ratio to support and protect equipment during the full force of a seismic event. The heavy-duty cabinets feature cross bracing, back stiffeners and double-walled extrusions,...

Ruggedized card enclosure.(Enclosure and video products)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... The RME821M Series of 8U rackmount enclosures features high-quality ruggedized construction and a compact stackable design for vertically mounted cards. The enclosures are available with either a basic cooling option that delivers 210 LFM...

Network keeps students mobile: University of Georgia project uses authentication servers for security.(Wireless)
July 1, 2004... Networked computers have become as much a part of the university experience as desks and chalkboards, and wireless network access is one of the ways universities keep score of who is best serving the needs of faculty and students. In this...

Policy-based networks: why not further along? Market confusion and shortcomings in vendor implementations are partly to blame.(Guest Column)
July 1, 2004... Policy-based networking offers the ability for the network infrastructure to permit, deny, prioritize, rate limit, or otherwise provide visibility or control of the traffic traversing a network. These capabilities are typically a subset of...