Communications News articles from October 2005

Communications News archives from October 2005

Open the H-1B list.(Editor's Note)
October 1, 2005... The job market for U.S. high-tech workers has improved this year, but tens of thousands of downsized employees are still trying to reconstruct their former lives. Meanwhile, U.S. companies have submitted nearly 52,000 job openings to be filled...

The future of bot worms.(Trends)
October 1, 2005... Te current trend in worms is going he bot route. Bots--programs that operate as an agent for a user or another program--are most often seen as malware and keep attacking unsuspected users in surprisingly high numbers. This trend is expected to...

Redundant network.(SHORT TAKES)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... ATI technologies, a Toronto-based manufacturer of chips for graphics and digital video processing for PCs, handheld devices, cell phones and digital TVs, is tapping into the wide-bandwidth free-space optics connectivity of Canon's Canobeam...

Events.(Calendar)
October 1, 2005... Storage Networking World Oct. 24-27, Orlando. www.storagenetworkingworld.com SANS Network Security Oct. 24-30, Los Angeles. www.sans.org COMNET Summit Nov. 28-30, Washington. www.comnetexpo.com Infosecurity Dec....

Mobile apps make strides.(Trends)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... Businesses are adopting mobile applications faster than they had planned, according to Forrester Research. Nearly half of respondents to a recent survey say they have deployed mobile applications like e-mail, calendaring and employee...

Runaway growth.(Trends)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... Worldwide wireless LAN switch ports sales jumped 52% to 170,000, and revenue grew 55% to $80.8 million between the first and second quarters of 2005, according to Infonetics Research. The number is expected to top $735 million by 2008. The...

Voice on WLAN.(SHORT TAKES)
October 1, 2005... Osaka Gas, one of Japan's largest national utilities, has selected Meru Networks' wireless LAN (WLAN) system for a pervasive wireless voice-over-IP (VoIP) network that will serve the organization's 50 offices. Using the WLAN system and NTT...

The Basics of 802.11 Wireless LANs.(PUBLICATIONS)
October 1, 2005... The Basics of 802.11 Wireless Lans covers the architecture and implementation of wireless local-area networks, including an examination of the 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g specifications, the benefits of each and their interoperability....

Network Administrators Survival Guide.(PUBLICATIONS)
October 1, 2005... Network Administrators Survival Guide is an all-in-one practical guide to supporting Cisco networks using freeware tools. With an emphasis on solutions for network managers and administrators of small to medium-sized enterprises, it is a single...

Who is in charge?(Trends)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... Network security is still the realm of IT departments, mostly, according to a survey conducted by StillSecure, but 29% of IT and security professionals now report directly to the CEO or CFO. The 2005 Security Management Survey received...

Faster, ever faster.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... As companies look to application-acceleration products to help ensure the delivery of applications, sales of these products are expected to reach $1.5 billion in 2005, a 33% increase over 2004, according to research firm Gartner. By 2009, the...

Platform tested.(usage of software )(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... Hotspot FX, which operates a multibank foreign exchange marketplace, is using the Shunra Virtual Enterprise solution to ensure that all releases of its trading platforms are optimized for network performance, prior to deployment. Shunra VE...

Secure gaming.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... The Washington State Gambling Commission (WSGC) is using StillSecure Strata Guard, a network-based intrusion-detection/ prevention system (IDS/ IPS). Since deploying Strata Guard, WSGC has been able to secure its network from worms, Trojans,...

High speed takes hold.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... The number of medium and large organizations in North America using high-speed access for metro and WAN services will grow from 15% and 63%, respectively, in 2004, to 50% and 83% in 2009, according to a forecast by Infonetics Research. This...

No more clipboards: when Cody Adams went looking for a wireless system for the Willis-Knighton health system in Louisiana, he chose a network with thin access points and centralized control.(Cover Story)
October 1, 2005... Gone are the days of the metal clipboards attached to hospital beds. Today, doctors and nurses often use portable laptops and PDAs to obtain patient records and diagnostics, and hospitals are researching wireless network infrastructures that...

Wireless network connects attendees: solution provides a flexible way to meet conference center's ever-shifting communication requirements.(Special Focus: Wireless)
October 1, 2005... As Canada's largest trade show and convention facility, the Metro Toronto Convention Centre (MTCC) knows a thing or two about the logistics involved in tearing down and rebuilding essential communication networks. MTCC hosts more than 700...

Wireless improves productivity: high-speed access to important applications allows officers to respond more quickly.(Special Focus: Wireless)
October 1, 2005... The city of Post Falls, Idaho, has been experiencing a population explosion--nearly three times as many people are living there today compared with 10 years ago. Virtually every part of the city government has faced challenges keeping up with...

Hot spots can burn you.(Special Focus: Wireless)
October 1, 2005... Most mobile users do not realize that once connected to a wireless hot spot they are a member of a connected community of users--most or all of whom are strangers. There is often little or no control of what can pass from user to user via a...

Buyers Guide: companies listed in this Enterprise Wireless Buyers Guide can assist you in selecting the products and services that work best for your organization.(Special Focus: Wireless)
October 1, 2005... ANTENNAS/TOWERS Aluma Tower Company 772-567-3423 www.alumatower.com Alvarion 760-517-3100 www.alvarion-usa.com Andrew Corp. 708-349-3300 www.andrew.com Avaya 866-462-8292 www.avaya.com Cisco Systems ...

Wireless print server.(New Products)
October 1, 2005... The Wireless USB Print Server can transform any USB printer into a shared resource for all network users. By wirelessly networking a printer, remote printing becomes available to all networked employees, including those off-site; specialized...

Serial device control.(New Products)
October 1, 2005... XBee-PRO radios allow for quick connections to both RS-232 and USB-enabled devices. The unit is completely compatible with networks operating on XBee and XBee-PRO technology, and includes a durable aluminum housing, 2.1-dBi dipole antenna and...

Access point and bridge.(New Products)
October 1, 2005... The Elite Connect 2.4GHz dual-radio 802.11g Wireless Bridge can serve as a wireless bridge to connect two LANs and provide wireless client access simultaneously, with full 54-Mbps bandwidth for all links. The unit is designed to connect...

Market pulse.(Illustration)
October 1, 2005... Q: What steps are you taking to keep employees mobile devices safe while using public Wi-Fi hotspots? IPSec VPN encryption 31% SSL-based VPN encryption 23% Smart-client software 9% ...

Rogue device discovery.(New Products)
October 1, 2005... AirDefense Mobile is a wireless LAN analyzer that performs a real-time assessment of all 802.11 a/b/g wireless devices in the immediate vicinity and coordinates with the AirDefense Enterprise product. The software uses the list of all devices...

VoIP Wi-Fi phone.(New Products)
October 1, 2005... The P.2000W_v2 VolP Wi-Fi phone features IEEE 802.11b wireless standard compliance and high voice quality with low communication cost, and supports auto provisioning for ease of deployment. The call-control protocol of the phone is based on...

WLAN controller.(New Products)
October 1, 2005... The 4400 Series WLAN Controller is capable of intelligently supporting up to 100 access points per controller with complete system-level resiliency. Intended for large-scale deployments, the controller incorporates real-time radio frequency...

VoIP + AND 1 = slam dunk: switch from analog phone system saves sportswear apparel maker time and money.(IP TELEPHONY)
October 1, 2005... AND 1, the basketball footwear and apparel company recently acquired by American Sporting Goods, has more than 20% of players in the National Basketball Association wearing AND 1 gear. The company, headquartered in Paoli, Pa., with offices in...

VoIP paves the way.(IP TELEPHONY)
October 1, 2005... Ajax Paving Industries was moving its headquarters and needed to network 18 facilities together over a high-speed voice and data network, but the objective of increasing the company's overall connectivity and productivity presented a challenge....

Don't ignore voice quality.(IP TELEPHONY)
October 1, 2005... One of the major stumbling blocks that still affects many voice-over-IP (VoIP)services today is the quality of the call. Often, it is noticeably inferior to legacy phone systems, and rarely is it better. So the challenge is how to convince the...

Are you running out of time? The IP network allows companies to eliminate tape and securely handle restores offsite.(BUSINESS CONTINUITY)
October 1, 2005... Traditionally, many data-protection and business-continuance plans have relied on internal staff to perform data backups, using in-house tapes and then physically transporting the tapes off-site to a backup data center. With the reach and...

Save those e-mails.(BUSINESS CONTINUITY)
October 1, 2005... Protecting e-mail and keeping it secure is more difficult today, as Internet threats increase in number, speed and complexity. IT organizations have their work cut out for them as they struggle to keep spam and malicious code from entering...

Firm builds better storage.(BUSINESS CONTINUITY)
October 1, 2005... Operations manager Alan Hunt is responsible for managing multiple locations with a small staff, and needed a flexible, easy-to-manage storage infrastructure. While his employer, Detroit law firm Dickinson Wright PLLC, had managed well enough...

Passion inspires video network: university uses existing category 5 cabling for simple analog television transmission.(INFRASTRUCTURE)
October 1, 2005... Kurt Bartelmehs makes no bones about it-he is passionate about unshielded twisted-pair cable (UTP). "When you have a UTP infrastructure, the sky is the limit for what you can do," says the technologist from the University of Texas at Austin...

Fiber system.(INFRASTRUCTURE PRODUCTS)
October 1, 2005... The Plug & Play Universal System is a pre-terminated optical fiber cabling system that streamlines the process of deploying an optical network infrastructure in the premises environment, particularly in data center applications. The system...

Dual interface card.(INFRASTRUCTURE PRODUCTS)
October 1, 2005... The 10/100Base-TX + 100Base-FX Dual Media Network Interface Card (NIC) includes an auto-negotiating, 10/100Base-TX RJ-45 port, in addition to a 100Base-FX port, allowing for flexibility for installation in both new and legacy LAN environments....

Silent enclosure.(INFRASTRUCTURE PRODUCTS)
October 1, 2005... Sonata II is a piano-black, quiet computing case equipped with a chassis air duct for increased cooling of the latest CPUs and graphics cards. The air duct is rear-vented for noise control, and can be adjusted in three directions to ensure that...

Directional coupler.(INFRASTRUCTURE PRODUCTS)
October 1, 2005... The Model 102020010 Directional Coupler features a frequency range of 2-20 GHz. Other specifications include a coupling with respect to output of 10 [+ or -] 0.5 dB, frequency sensitivity of [+ or -] 0.3 dB, directivity of 16 dB minimum, and a...

Port duplication.(INFRASTRUCTURE PRODUCTS)
October 1, 2005... UniXpress is a USB 2.0 port replicator with VGA and dual-PC support. Users simply connect the VGA display, Ethernet, speakers, microphone, USB printers and other peripherals to UniXpress. All of these peripherals can then interface with the...

Digital UPS system.(INFRASTRUCTURE PRODUCTS)
October 1, 2005... The SMART1000LCD Digital UPS System features a large, backlit display that clearly and dynamically indicates input voltage, UPS battery capacity and a variety of operational conditions. The system provides 1,000 VA of conditioned power,...

Portable VoIP vision.(PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT: TESTING & MONITORING)
October 1, 2005... Designed to reduce the time it takes to troubleshoot IP phone deployment, the handheld NetTool VoIP tool combines cable, network, IP phone and PC configuration testing into a single device. The power of inline testing is in the hands of the...

Proprietary application emulation.(PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT: TESTING & MONITORING)
October 1, 2005... Unlike legacy capture-replay techniques, Network Tester recreates real transport protocol sessions with unique port numbers and multiplies traffic in a realistic and scalable manner. This makes quantifying the effectiveness of application...

VoIP infrastructure testing.(PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT: TESTING & MONITORING)
October 1, 2005... The Hammer VolP Test Solution for Enterprises allows enterprises to reduce risk and speed the rollout of VoIP services and IP telephony applications (such as messaging, speech self-service, conferencing and CTI) by accurately assessing how...

Web site monitoring.(PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT: TESTING & MONITORING)
October 1, 2005... Log Analyzer Professional 3.0 is a Web site traffic-analysis tool that helps Web masters do search engine optimization, Web site promotion and pay-per-click (PPC) campaign management. In addition to offering standard reports, including entry...

Network emulation.(PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT: TESTING & MONITORING)
October 1, 2005... Version 3.5 of the Virtual Enterprise solution delivers enhanced automation for rapid testing and assurance of dynamically changing network environments. The product recreates an exact model of the production environment, including the WAN,...

High-speed testing.(Product Spotlight: Testing and Monitoring)
October 1, 2005... The FTB-8510G Pocket Blazer can help ensure quality of service on high-speed 10-GigE interfaces in the network core. Test capabilities like packet jitter, traffic generation and analysis, and RFC 2544 (a testing methodology that includes...

Fibre channel testing.(Product Spotlight: Testing and Monitoring)
October 1, 2005... The FCAccess 4000 is a multifunction card that can be used as a Fibre Channel (FC) analyzer, generator, error injector or bit error rate tester. It supports all FC standard transmission speeds and all topologies or port types. When operating as...

VoIP performance troubleshooting.(Product Spotlight: Testing and Monitoring)
October 1, 2005... Netcool Solutions for Voice Over IP provides realtime service-quality management for IP telephony services. The system provides a single business-focused view of the IP telephony and data service with intuitive drill-downs to monitor the health...

Data recovery confirmation.(Testing and Monitoring)
October 1, 2005... Meet good-practice requirements for regular disaster recovery testing with Assured Recovery, a software solution that checks the recoverability of data on a replicated system by starting applications that use the data and verifying that all...

Packet analysis.(Testing and Monitoring)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... LANWatch 7.0 is a software-based network packet analyzer. Easy to install and use, it monitors traffic in real time and displays a wide range of packet statistics. LANWatch monitors, examines and verifies 78 network protocols in both...

DVD recording.(Storage Products)
October 1, 2005... The internal DRU-810A and external DRX-810UL model DVD burners support 8X DVD+R double layer (DL) recording speed, and can burn up to 8.5GB of video, data, music or images on compatible media in about fifteen minutes. The units represent the...

SATA storage chassis.(Serial Advanced Technology Attachment )(Coraid Inc. etherdrive storage more than 400 giga bytes)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... The EtherDrive storage chassis includes 15 hot swap drive bays, which accommodate standard SATA disk drives. The shelf offers a dual GigE interface, redundant hot swap power modules and fans. Fully populated drive bays using 400-GB disk drives...

Dense ATA storage.(Advanced Technological Attachment)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... The Diamond Array features an upgraded capacity of 12 terabytes. The ATA enterprise-class storage array is 3U in height and consumes less than 400 W, allowing for up to 168 terabytes of storage in a standard 44U rack, without the need of a...

Midrange NAS.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... Designed for data sharing and storage-hungry applications in high-density environments, the AR3015 network-attached storage solution boosts network capacity while providing simple management and redundant features. Advantages over...

Secure storage appliance.(Storage Products)
October 1, 2005... Assureon is an integrated secure storage appliance for companies concerned with data privacy, data theft and compliance. The scalable, plug-and-play solution incorporates high-density SATA RAID hardware combined with data security measures,...

Branch office security.(New Products)
October 1, 2005... Reflex IPS 25 combines deep packet inspection with a suite of network detection and prevention techniques into a network intrusion-prevention solution designed for branch offices. Supporting networks with speeds up to T-1/E-1, the Reflex IPS 25...

Voice mail via exchange.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... Designed as a universal voice-messaging platform, deeply and seamlessly integrated into Microsoft Exchange and Active Directory, Adorno Voice Messaging for Exchange is designed for midsize and larger enterprises planning to upgrade telecom...

Stackable workgroup switches.(New Products)
October 1, 2005... The OmniStack LS 6200 family of 10/100 Ethernet stackable workgroup switches supports next-generation converged network applications and provides wire-speed performance, network security and optional power over Ethernet. The switches offer...

DHCP access control.(New Products)
October 1, 2005... Enterprise 2.2 is network access-control software that features DHCP enforcement capabilities to stop rogue or non-compliant endpoints before they gain access to corporate networks. Enterprises can centrally manage security policy enforcement...

Fax over IP.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... XMediusFAX is a T.38 fax-over-IP server application that integrates seamlessly with leading IP telephony technologies from companies such as Cisco, 3Com/AudioCodes and Alcatel. Certified to interoperate with the major Cisco VoIP gateways, the...

Small business communications.(New Products)
October 1, 2005... Intended for smaller companies and enterprise branch offices, the CallXpress Server Bundle is designed to provide the same powerful communications features and functionality that larger enterprises enjoy. From a desktop computer, CallXpress...

Master of the move.(Interview)
October 1, 2005... Alan Hunt tackles what most IT directors do, including major rollouts, all his company's desktop systems, server systems and networks. Recently, though, as the manager of operations for Dickinson Wright, a Detroit-based law firm with some 220...