Communications News articles from November 2004

Communications News archives from November 2004

New responsibilities.(Editor's Note)
November 1, 2004... Twenty years ago, magazine editors had little to do with the actual laying out of the publication's pages. We assigned articles, edited, wrote headlines and perhaps offered a crude design idea for each article's presentation (among a myriad of...

Wireless security is evolving.(Trends)
November 1, 2004... Analysts are touting the need for wireless LANs (WLANs) across the many verticals of today's enterprises. One research firm estimates that there will be more than 25 million WLAN users globally by 2008, while other firms predict that...

Voice systems: IT in charge.(Trends)
November 1, 2004... Enterprise telephony staffs are shrinking, while IT staffs are assuming more of the responsibilities for their organizations' voice networks. Converged voice and data networks are driving the evolution. According to a recent report from...

VoIP on the move.(Trends)
November 1, 2004... Most fortune 500 companies have been testing voice over IP solutions for several years. Now, the technology has gained major traction with the announcement that Bank of America (BOA), Boeing and Ford Motor Co. have begun large-scale deployments...

Events.(Trends)(Calendar)
November 1, 2004... Wi-Fi Planet. Nov. 30-Dec. 2, San Jose, conference and expo is where vendors introduce the latest products, business users gain knowledge of WiFi related technology, and where the industry charts its future direction. www.jupiterevents.com ...

The end of SUPERCOMM.(SUPERCOMM)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... SUPERCOMM, which has postured itself as a combination carrier/enterprise event, but which, in reality, is mostly about the carrier market, will hold its last event in June 2005 in Chicago. A new event, GLOBALCOMM, will take its place. The new...

Keep an eye on telecom costs.(Trends)
November 1, 2004... The dollars that enterprises spend on telecom services--such as local and long distance, mobile phone plans, calling cards, conferencing and data networks--have long been considered a cost of doing business. In today's cost-conscious market,...

Speechless! What are the strategies to consider for recovering voice communications when disaster strikes?(Cover Story)
November 1, 2004... Voice services are critical to the smooth operations of most organizations. Yet many organizations implement ineffective disaster-recovery measures based oil inaccurate assumptions, which lead to a false sense of security. Though the basic...

Charting a Web course: redline networks helps medical records management firm ChartOne cure network pains and boost the business case for its Web-enabled ERP applications.(Advertising)(Advertisement)
November 1, 2004... No IT executive looks forward to asking upper management to spend $200,000 on a major system upgrade. But Henry Svendblad, director of IT at ChartOne, Inc., felt he had little choice. ChartOne sells technology and services that help health care...

About INS.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... INS (International Network Services) was founded in 1991 as a network-consulting firm, and by 1997 had become one of the fastest growing high-tech firms in Silicon Valley. In 1999, INS was acquired by Lucent Technologies, which spun off the...

Avoid disaster through planning: follow these steps to minimize the effects of a failure in your mission-critical facility.(Business Continuity)
November 1, 2004... The methods used by enterprise mangers to analyze operations and plan for disasters have a direct impact on their ability to minimize the effects of a failure in a mission-critical facility. The first step in developing a plan is to change from...

Before the lights go out.(Business Continuity)
November 1, 2004... In this age of critical computing systems and the Internet, business continuity requires the protection of electronic equipment from the very thing that brings it to life--utility power. There are 10 steps that any facilities or IT manager can...

Best practices in business continuity.(Business Continuity)
November 1, 2004... Best practices in business-continuity planning have less to do with technology than with process. Planning for a single challenge, such as Y2K or contact center recovery, is insufficient to protect your business on an ongoing basis. Making...

Fax over IP.(VoIP equipment and services)
November 1, 2004... The TR 1034 series of intelligent fax boards offers enterprise customers a line of high-performance 33.6-Kbps intelligent fax boards with real-time fax-over-IP capabilities. The boards are useful in a variety of computer-based fax applications,...

VoWLAN gateway.(VoIP equipment and services)
November 1, 2004... The W310 WLAN Gateway and W 110 WLAN Access Point together provide a voice-optimized WLAN infrastructure that scales to support midsize to large enterprise deployments. When combined with the company's Communication Manager and associated...

VoIP client software.(VoIP equipment and services)
November 1, 2004... The SymPhone Enterprise VoIP System is a software solution for making voice calls from mobile computers. Quality management in the client software allows it to maintain calls when the packet loss is as high as 50%, handle up to 400 ms of jitter...

Voice mail forwarding.(VoIP equipment and services)
November 1, 2004... The Voicemail to E-mail Service allows users to send voice mails to their e-mail boxes. Voice mail messages are delivered to e-mail in a .wav audio file format, so users hear the messages exactly as they were recorded. This eliminates the...

Flexible phone system.(VoIP equipment and services)
November 1, 2004... A complete solution that features native IP and a unique network signaling protocol, the Nexspan family of converged communications platforms provide a foundation for an IP network, as well as flexibility for companies just beginning to migrate...

Loose tube or tight-buffered? Installation costs and reliability determined by the capabilities of different cabling types.(Special Focus: Premises Infrastructure)
November 1, 2004... Stranded loose-tube cable has historically been deployed for campus backbone applications in accordance with industry standards, such as ICEA-640, "Standard For Optical Fiber Outside Plant Communications Cable." Work has recently been completed...

Ensure robust performance.
November 1, 2004... Applications such as 100BASE-TX depend on the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the cabling system as a key parameter to accurately transmit the signal. In cabling terms, because near-end crosstalk was much greater than all other noise sources,...

Shielded cabling system.(New products)
November 1, 2004... Clarity Shielded Solutions provide enhanced Category 6 and Category 5e performance, with added protection from EMI, RFI and alien cross talk-external noise sources that can negatively affect channel performance. The new four-pair shielded...

UTP to fiber.(New products)
November 1, 2004... The iConverter 10/100M is a 10/100 UTP copper-to-fiber converter/switch with built-in SNMP and Telnet management for first-mile metropolitan area networks and enterprise LAN applications. The unit features VLAN, QoS, port access and bandwidth...

Modular fiber connectivity.(New products)
November 1, 2004... The 24 LC Data Module provides users with 24 LC connections in the same space as the 12 LC Data Module--doubling the density achieved in the modular system. Users can now have the freedom and flexibility of interchangeable modules, combined...

Buyers guide.(Special Focus: Premises Infrastructure)(Directory)
November 1, 2004... The first portion of this Premises Infrastructure 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,...

Company guide.(Special Focus: Premises Infrastructure)(Directory)
November 1, 2004... 3M Telecommunications TX 800-426-8688; fax: 800-626-0329 www.3m.com/enterprise 4SProducts FL 305-666-7474; fax: 305-666-7272 www.48Products.com Ace Wire & Cable Co. NY 800-225-2354; fax: 718-335-6340 ...

Software provides network insight: Web-based network monitoring helps answer SLA and bandwidth concerns.(Bandwidth Management)
November 1, 2004... As Jewish Home and Hospital of New York(JHH) installed a succession of management tools over the years to ease the burden on IT, it found that while each offered help, they always fell short. Even a blockbuster installation of Computer...

The rise of XML-awareness.
November 1, 2004... Extensible markup language (XML) is a collective term for a family of protocols that are the foundation for Web services. These new Web services promise a low-cost and efficient way to connect and exchange data with trading partners, customers...

Less latency, better productivity: company speeds remote application performance through bandwidth compression and management.(Bandwidth Management)
November 1, 2004... Bill Pappas needed to address user complaints about application delays, but did not want to blow his department's budget on link upgrades. With a network serving 2,000 employees in more than 25 countries, users were experiencing widely varying...

Remote access eliminates 'house calls': console switches use IP technology to streamline and improve KVM access.(Remote Management)
November 1, 2004... "We're a 24x7 shop," notes Jim Beck, manager of distributed systems support for Sharp HealthCare in San Diego. "Although we do have scheduled system-wide downtime, being able to keep our servers operating is key. The ability to remotely manage...

Sharing network analysis equipment.(Remote Management)
November 1, 2004... The most widespread method for managing network monitoring is through the use of analysis equipment, such as probes and sniffers. These devices perform a variety of critical tusks--from analyzing network traffic and troubleshooting application...

What is the best tool?(Keyboard/video/mouse technology)
November 1, 2004... Keyboard/video/mouse (KVM) technology has been a part of the network infrastructure for the past two decades, with the devices evolving into a more expansive role within the data center. When evaluating approaches, analog vs. digital solutions...

Demystify WAN link monitoring: the user's level of familiarity with WAN analyzers and the time spent with the system are important.(Internet/WAN)
November 1, 2004... In today's network environment, WAN monitoring has different meanings to different people. For some, WAN monitoring is simple router queries to monitor link utilization on an ad hoc basis. For others, WAN monitoring means a distributed set of...

Edge appliance.(Network security)
November 1, 2004... The Firebox X Edge appliance is designed to provide small to midsize enterprises with commercial-class security at the furthest points of the network. It delivers firewall, VPN, wireless security, Web-filtering and managed desktop antivirus...

Remote-access security.(Network security)
November 1, 2004... The NetScreen Remote Access 500 appliance is an instant virtual-extranet platform optimized for small to midsize enterprises. Unlike legacy client-based remote-access technologies, the solution uses SSL-based transport to provide secure remote...

Antivirus firewall.(Network security)
November 1, 2004... Designed for network, edge or core deployments in large enterprises, carriers and managed service providers, the FortiGate-5000 Series of high-performance, highly scalable antivirus firewalls delivers complete content protection on a flexible...

Security reporting tool.(Network security)
November 1, 2004... Astaro Report Manager is a security data-collection and reporting tool that helps system administrators respond rapidly to attacks, measure network and threat activity, tune defenses, and produce detailed reports for management and auditing...

Password management.(Network security)
November 1, 2004... The Password Auto Repository provides individual accountability, dual control and a strong audit trail for the changing and release of shared administrative IDs, such as "root" on UNIX and "administrator" on Windows. The operations tool is a...

Security scanner.(Network security)
November 1, 2004... Sunbelt Network Security Inspector (SNSI) version 1.5 delivers enhancements to the existing version, including support for popular Linux systems, IP-based scanning, port and Windows service scanning, vulnerability searching, and new...

DNS management.(Network security)
November 1, 2004... The MetaInfo Appliance 250 and 500 deployment platforms are dedicated for the company's Meta IP services and modules, and remove threats like third-party services on third-party hardware failing or being exploited, thus compromising a company's...

Powerful switch.(Network security)
November 1, 2004... The PowerConnect 5324 switch delivers wire-speed performance for all 24 gigabit ports, as well as greater security and flexibility for customer networks. Standards-based Web and command-line interface tools and Dell OpenManage Network Manager...

OTDR certification software.(Network-monitoring solutions)
November 1, 2004... Certification Software for the company's Mini-OTDR enables fiber-optic installers to interface the OTDR with a PC and provide printouts and/or electronic documentation of the required trace results. The Mini-OTDR is a 3-lb'portable...

Network health monitoring.(Network-monitoring solutions)
November 1, 2004... Network Monitor delivers flexible tools to continuously monitor network health and performance. It automatically creates a map of network objects and monitors all aspects of the network-from servers and ports to applications and services-and...

LAN analysis.(Network-monitoring solutions)
November 1, 2004... OptiView Link Analyzer 6.1 helps network managers reduce mean time to resolution for network problems and ensure maximum productivity with network/application resources. The solution supports industry-standard RMON2 traffic monitoring, allowing...

End-user experience analysis.(Network-monitoring solutions)
November 1, 2004... Designed to provide real-time measurements to improve the application experience of customers and employees, ITvisibility enables enterprises to directly measure the IT service levels experienced by users of all applications. The solution...

Automated Ethernet testing.(Network-monitoring solutions)
November 1, 2004... The CMA 5000 Gigabit Ethernet tester can now dramatically speed RFC testing. Measurements that normally took hours can now be accomplished in a matter of minutes or seconds. Testing setup has also been simplified. With the latest enhancements,...

Collapse of the 'Web tier': application front-end products condense functionality into a single, more elegantly designed platform.(Guest Column)
November 1, 2004... Migrating from client-server to Web-based, or "clientless computing" (i.e., requiring only a browser client-side) simplifies overall management cost and enables a new level of flexibility. Web-enablement is fairly new, however, and Web-based...