Network World articles from August 2004

Network World archives from August 2004

Practice safe chat; Unprotected messaging can cause serious security and compliance problems.
August 2, 2004... Byline: Melanie Turek Practice safe chat Unprotected messaging can cause serious security and compliance problems. By Melanie Turek Instant messaging is running on enterprise networks, whether IT managers want to acknowledge...

P2P drag on nets getting worse.(peer to peer computing)
August 2, 2004... Byline: CAROLYN DUFFY MARSAN Peer-to-peer traffic has reached an all-time high across the Internet, bringing with it heightened security and legal threats for companies that fail to rid their networks of these popular applications. For...

Bringing WLANs into the mgmt. fold.(wireless local area networks)
August 2, 2004... Byline: DENISE DUBIE James Wiedel didn't purchase a product specifically to manage the wireless LAN infrastructure at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Rather, the director of networking at the university's...

Demand higher-quality software.
August 2, 2004... Byline: Daniel Blum Recently, an American Business Roundtable report concluded: "Most of the significant cyber-incidents . . . have had at their root cause defective and readily exploitable software code." This comes at a time when...

XFire helps pinpoint Web application bugs.(Product/Service Evaluation)
August 2, 2004... Byline: Thomas Powell, Network World Lab Alliance Web application debugging tools XFire helps pinpoint Web application bugs n By Thomas Powell, Network World Lab Alliance Modern Web applications are a conglomerate of many...

How we did it.(Brief Article)
August 2, 2004... How we did it We tested the xFire platform in a mixed IIS and Apache environment with a variety of middleware environments, including Tomcat, ColdFusion, Active Server Pages and ASP.NET and databases including mySQL and Microsoft SQL...

A strong dose of RealiTea.(Product/Service Evaluation)
August 2, 2004... Byline: Thomas Powell A strong dose of RealiTea Traditionally, user-focused Web-application monitoring has been restricted to static log analysis or other forms of Web analytics. TeaLeaf Technology, a pioneer in user-based transaction...

Spam cure: Nail the vendors.
August 2, 2004... Byline: Winn Schwartau The United Nations has decided to take on spam. Leaders from industrialized and evolving countries figured it was time to bring spam on an even political keel with AIDS, hunger and the war on terror. After all, the...

Rethinking desktop strategies; Small form factors, notebooks move to the top of the list as customers undergo refreshes.
August 2, 2004... Byline: JENNIFER MEARS While IT executives put off replacing aging client systems during the economic downturn, a brightening economy is prompting companies to take a closer look at their desktop plans. And they are finding broader options...

Business DSL more popular than flashy; BUSINESS DSL: The technology quietly steams ahead.(digital subscriber line)
August 2, 2004... Byline: JIM DUFFY It's not hot, it's not sexy, and it doesn't generate much press. But business DSL is alive and well . . . and growing, 10 years after its debut. Analysts and service providers say DSL, usually targeted at and used by...

EV-DO lights up mobile data; Verizon Wireless and Sprint beginning to test the waters.(evolution data only)
August 2, 2004... Byline: STEPHEN LAWSON The light at the end of the tunnel to 3G mobile data services in the U.S. is getting brighter as technology that builds on Code Division Multiple Access networks comes into view. Although the rival Universal...

RDMA over TCP: Breaking the Gigabit Ethernet bot.(Remote Direct Memory Access)
August 2, 2004... Byline: Kevin Tolly F or network managers who've outfitted their servers with Gigabit Ethernet network interface cards in recent years, the results definitely have been of the "glass half-full" variety. While Gigabit Ethernet NICs...

The smile is long gone.
August 2, 2004... Byline: Scott Bradner A T&T has been fading in front of our eyes like Alice's Cheshire Cat for quite a while now, at least since the big break-up 20 years ago. Now AT&T management has announced that it is giving up another chunk of...

Mixed messages of telework's future.
August 2, 2004... Byline: TONI KISTNER Nearly one-third of the U.S. workforce - 44 million people - is expected to work from home this year, an increase of 4% from 2003, according to a new report from In-Stat/MDR. If the numbers seem high, it's because...

Infrastructure briefs.(Brief Article)
August 2, 2004... Byline: staff IBM and Cisco announced last week that the IBM SAN Volume Controller software running on Cisco MDS 9000 Multilayer director-level Fibre Channel switches now supports non-IBM storage arrays. The SAN Volume Controller, which...

High-tech cribs; Home networks move beyond linking PCs . . . Try heating the spa on the way home.
August 2, 2004... Byline: CAROLYN DUFFY MARSAN High-tech cribs Home networks move beyond linking PCs . . . Try heating the spa on the way home. When Ken Fobes walks in the door of his mansion in Ponte Vedra, Fla., he taps a touchscreen on the wall...

AT&T's bellwether move.
August 2, 2004... Byline: Johna Till Johnson A T&T's decision to stop marketing traditional consumer local and long-distance services highlights the seismic shift underway in the telecom arena. I've written much on the growing distinction between...

Zultys adds advanced call center features.
August 2, 2004... Byline: PHIL HOCHMUTH Zultys Technologies last week released software for its IP PBX that the company says smooths interactions between call center agents and customers. The company's Advanced Automatic Call Distributor software is...

Toshiba offers Web access with notebook PCs.(MyConnect)(Brief Article)
August 2, 2004... Byline: TONI KISTNER When it comes to ubiquitous Internet access, mobile workers are caught between states of promise and reality. The dream is to log on with your laptop from anywhere - car, park bench, coffeehouse or hotel room. The...

ID management establishes trust.(Liberty Identification Federation Framework 1.2 standard from Liberty Alliance)
August 2, 2004... Byline: GAVENRAJ SODHI With identity theft on the rise, consumer trust of the Internet eroding and the number of passwords users need to remember growing, the battle cry for an integrated approach to manage electronic identities is...

Ask Dr. Internet.(Brief Article)
August 2, 2004... Byline: Steve Blass Steve Blass Is there a quick way to get started with Symantec's Ghost? We are stuck on how to create an image file for distribution. Install the Ghost Server software on the machine you will use to distribute...

Service Providers briefs.(Metro Packet Systems to be acquired by ADVA Optical Networking)(Brief Article)
August 2, 2004... Byline: staff Sprint announced a new service bundle last week that bypasses local exchange carrier networks. The announcement comes on the heels of Sprint and AT&T separately announcing last month that they would no longer actively solicit...

Cool Tools.(meshed briefs)
August 2, 2004... Byline: Keith Shaw DiskOnKey USB drive jumps to 2G bytes M-Systems, which makes USB flash drives under its DiskOnKey brand name, announced last week it has it has created a USB flash drive with 2G bytes of storage capacity. With the...

Virtual apps software gets upgrade.
August 2, 2004... Byline: JOHN COX Softricity this month is scheduled to release upgraded software for enabling applications to run on PCs and servers without being installed on them. The company's SoftGrid, the latest version of which has new...

Enterprise Applications Short Takes.(Start-up LogLogic)(Brief Article)
August 2, 2004... Start-up LogLogic last week launched an appliance for quickly retrieving data from multiple logs across an enterprise network. The company says its offering can eliminate hours of searching through device logs to determine the source of a...

First GAN, then HAN (home-area network).(garden area network)
August 2, 2004... Byline: Mark Gibbs A few weeks ago we discussed what one reader referred to as our garden-area network (www.nwfusion.com, DocFinder: 3135), or GAN, and we got a few interesting pieces of feedback. One reader pointed out a small...

'NetBuzz.
August 2, 2004... Byline: Paul McNamara Attention aspiring checkout clerks My first experience with self-service checkout last year did not endear the retailer to me in that it was unacceptably long lines at the staffed lanes rather than curiosity...

A milestone in telecom's evolution.
August 2, 2004... Byline: John Dix It is unthinkable that the powers that be who broke up AT&T 20 years ago could have envisioned that the changes they set in motion ultimately would force the company to exit the consumer phone business. After all, AT&T was...

Cisco drops suit against Huawei.(meshed briefs)
August 2, 2004... n Cisco last week dropped its copyright lawsuit against Huawei Technologies after confirming the network vendor stopped sales of disputed products and changed the look of its software and user manuals. Cisco alleged that Huawei used a replica...

Microsoft prepping directory upgrade.
August 2, 2004... Byline: John Fontana Microsoft says it is readying synchronization technology that makes it easier and safer for companies to build directory-enabled applications that sit on Windows servers in certain departments or outside corporate...

Veritas updates remote-office backup; Software now supports up to 64 concurrent replications.
August 2, 2004... Byline: DENI CONNOR Veritas Software this week is expected to unveil a new version of its software that provides centralized backup of files for remote office servers and network-attached storage appliances. The upgrade features a new GUI,...

Linux adoption continues as SCO battle wages on.(The SCO Group Inc.)(Brief Article)
August 2, 2004... Byline: Jennifer Mears While enterprise IT organizations step up their consideration of Linux as a viable platform for server and desktop operating systems, The SCO Group continues its legal war against the open source software industry...

Making the case for VoIP; An opportunity analysis reveals the savings potential of an infrastructure investment.(voice over internet protocol)
August 2, 2004... Byline: Lynn Denoia and Tom Randall Making the case for VoIP An opportunity analysis reveals the savings potential of an infrastructure investment. n by lynn denoia and tom randall As companies seek to justify IT projects in...

Fiscal crunch raises questions at Nortel; The future of its enterprise and optical groups is debated.
August 2, 2004... Byline: JIM DUFFY Even though Nortel gets the bulk of its revenue from its telecom products, the company steadfastly maintains that its enterprise network unit is important to the company's overall business. But industry watchers say...

Show spotlight to shine on Linux advances.
August 2, 2004... Byline: JENNIFER MEARS AND PHIL HOCHMUTH Attendees headed to this week's LinuxWorld Conference & Expo in San Francisco will be looking for application, desktop and middleware support instead of questioning the operating system's viability....

802.11a WLANs winning converts; More throughput to more users, plus less interference cited as reasons.(wireless local area networks)
August 2, 2004... Byline: JOHN COX Initially overhyped, then almost dismissed, 802.11a quietly is gaining ground as a wireless LAN standard of choice. Faced with an array of network infrastructure needs and end-user demand, network executives are adding...

Gates: We'll make security our forte.
August 2, 2004... Byline: JOHN FONTANA REDMOND, WASH. - Security will come to be seen as a Microsoft strength. So says Bill Gates, who raised the bar significantly last week when he told financial analysts that ongoing development projects will...

Positively false.
August 2, 2004... Byline: Mark Gibbs Regarding last week's Backspin about the disappointing outcome of New York's case against spammer OptInRealBig.com, reader Scott Hutchinson writes: "To a big spam house, a $50,000 fine can be considered a cost of doing...

Word up; How do you set your spam filters to block key words when the Viagra mail has to get through?
August 9, 2004... Byline: STEVE ULFELDER IT execs at spam-magnet industries come up with creative ways to block spam while keeping legitimate e-mail flowing. Believe it or not, Dan Lukas, lead security architect at Aurora Health Care, makes no attempt...

Waxing and waning.(Brief Article)
August 9, 2004... Byline: STEVE ULFELDER Any discussion of spam-sensitive industries needs to include ISPs. ISPs spend a fortune trying to reduce the quantities of junk mail sent to - and by - their subscribers. ISPs formed the Anti-Spam Technical Alliance...

Moving to service-based computing.
August 9, 2004... Byline: Chris Shipley Last year, as Demomobile 2003 was nearing, I developed a mantra of sorts. As often as I could, I asserted that mobile technology had turned us into "always-on people" - empowered buyers of technology who would usher...

How we did it.(Brief Article)
August 9, 2004... Byline: Rodney Thayer How we did it We used an HP Proliant ML330 server with a 2.8-GHz Xeon processor and 1G byte of memory running Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition as our Validation Authority server. We used a Linux machine,...

Fitting OCSP into your Certificate Infrastructure.(Online Certificate Status Protocol)
August 9, 2004... Byline: Rodney Thayer Fitting OCSP into your Certificate Infrastructure X.509 Digital certificates are used in a variety of security protocols to provide identity management. The most prevalent use is in browsers where they provide...

Telling it like it is.(Letter to the Editor)
August 9, 2004... Telling it like it is Rock on, Denny Strigl. In "Wireless directory draws cheers, jeers" (www.nwfusion.com, DocFinder: 3222), the Verizon Wireless CEO is quoted as saying, "Let's, as an industry, stop pushing something on customers that...

Address book apps try to shake spam label; APPLICATIONS: Contact applications.
August 9, 2004... Byline: CARA GARRETSON Plaxo, the free contact application that automatically updates address books via e-mail, has gained notoriety since it was launched just over a year ago. Now its creators are pinning the application's future on a...

Snap Appliance debuts midrange NAS device.
August 9, 2004... Byline: DENI CONNOR Snap Appliance, in its first announcement since being acquired by Adaptec, says it is entering the midrange network-attached storage market. The company says its new Snap Server 18000 is designed for divisions...

Another Cisco face-lift?
August 9, 2004... Byline: Thomas Nolle For some, Cisco's recent acquisition of Procket's intellectual property seems to signal that the network giant has no strategy. What it really signals is that Cisco has too many strategies and that at least some in the...

IT contract management; Manufacturer's homegrown system tracks thousands of telecom and product agreements.
August 9, 2004... Byline: DENISE PAPPALARDO Sorting through dozens of binders at multiple locations to find one of Flowserve's 1,785 IT contracts was not an optimal way to access the company's latest desktop software, hardware, leasing and telecom...

Web services turns rock star.
August 9, 2004... Byline: Dave Kearns T wo very different people - Burton Group's Jamie Lewis and O'Reilly Media's Tim O'Reilly - took on similar themes during keynote addresses at the recently concluded Catalyst Conference (Lewis) and the Open Source...

IBM differs in acquisition strategy; Big Blue targets smaller, less-expensive companies that have easy-to-integrate technology.
August 9, 2004... Byline: ANN BEDNARZ Like cyclist Lance Armstrong in the Pyrenees Mountains, IBM's acquisitions strategists have picked up the pace. Just last month the company added application-monitoring software from Cyanea Systems and business...

Our tax dollars, almost at work.(Department of Homeland Security)
August 9, 2004... Byline: Scott Bradner A bout a year and a half ago the U.S. government released the "National Strategy to Protect Cyberspace." This report was mostly to get the Department of Homeland Security to organize, support and communicate...

Forsee talks telecom; Sprint CEO defends AT&T deal, rips Ebbers.(Interview)
August 9, 2004... Byline: Denise Pappalardo and Paul McNamara While the telecom market as a whole still struggles to find footing, the terrain looks somewhat more stable under Sprint. CEO Gary Forsee recently sat with Network World Senior Editor Denise...

Service Providers Short Takes.(Brief Article)
August 9, 2004... n Global broadband prices fell sharply in the first half of the year as cable operators moved to meet the challenge of lower prices from DSL, according to a research report. Monthly rental fees for broadband cable services dropped 16% in the...

Vendors shore up ID mgmt. tools; Passlogix, Imprivata update single-sign on wares.
August 9, 2004... Byline: JOHN FONTANA Two single sign-on vendors are upgrading their products in an effort to meet the needs of corporate users warming up to identity management. Passlogix says it is making its v-Go SSO server and agent software more...

Remote optimizers aid consolidation.
August 9, 2004... Byline: YUVAL HAGER Organizations with branch offices are consolidating their networks to control the costs of managing their IT infrastructures. But because of latency posed by WAN connections, it's difficult to provide remote-site users...

Figuring out information stewardship.
August 9, 2004... Byline: Johna Til Johnson I've been doing a lot of work these days on the topic of "information stewardship." Essentially, this is the discipline of ensuring that a company's data is: l Accurate and as complete as possible. l...

Chelsio launches 10G Ethernet for less.(Chelsio Communications)(Brief Article)
August 9, 2004... Byline: PHIL HOCHMUTH Chelsio Communications' launch of a 10G bit/sec Ethernet network interface card for about $2,000 could signal the start of a price decline that will encourage customers to embrace the high-speed technology. The...

VoIP vendors: Regulation hinders growth.
August 9, 2004... Byline: GRANT GROSS U.S. regulators can play an important role in the spread of VoIP services by showing the rest of the world that the best way to encourage growth is by limiting regulation, according to those who sell VoIP services and...

Cingular touts mobile e-mail services.
August 9, 2004... Byline: JIM DUFFY Cingular Wireless last week launched two enterprise-class e-mail services designed to let users securely access corporate e-mail resources from mobile devices. The services include customer premise- and network-based...

short takes.(Brief Article)
August 9, 2004... n IBM last week announced it has made Sourcefire's intrusion-detection sensors, including the Realtime Network Awareness appliance, part of its managed services offerings. Sourcefire's appliances are built on the IBM xSeries platform and can...

short takes.(Brief Article)
August 9, 2004... n The SCO Group last week unveiled a developer version of its upcoming OpenServer operating system. Code-named Legend, the operating system will include PostgreSQL and MySQL relational databases, and support for symmetric multiprocessing,...

Check Point faces up to challenges; Security company is integrating its software in network gear, selling its own appliances.
August 9, 2004... Byline: TIM GREENE You'd think Check Point might be hitting its peak given that network security has become the top priority for so many IT shops. But the firewall/VPN company actually is facing some of its stiffest challenges. ...

Power line to the people.(homeplug networks)
August 9, 2004... Byline: Mark Gibbs L ast week we discussed the delights of power-line networking based on the HomePlug standard. HomePlug nodes can communicate at up to 14M bit/sec. Note that we wrote "can" and "up to" - anything that degrades...

Cool Tools.(meshed briefs)
August 9, 2004... Byline: Keith Shaw D-Link launches 802.11g network camera D-Link Systems last week announced an 802.11g wireless LAN-based network camera that includes remote pan, tilt and zoom features. The D-Link Wireless Internet Security...

Divergent views of e-voting.
August 9, 2004... Byline: Paul McNamara Divergent views of e-voting Electronic voting machines scare the bejesus out of IT security experts, while the general populace finds them no more threatening than an automated teller machine. If nothing is done...

Ask Dr. Internet.(Brief Article)
August 9, 2004... Byline: Steve Blass Steve Blass We're trying to implement streaming audio and video with NetMeeting on Windows XP Professional. We're using a USB camera that works well with the software it came with, but with NetMeeting the video...

Audit raps Cisco's 'wired' contract win.(meshed briefs)
August 9, 2004... n Findings of collusion between the city of San Jose and Cisco over an $8 million network installation contract is causing controversy for the network vendor. According to stories published in the San Jose Mercury News last week, an audit by...

Computing show deaths leave void.
August 9, 2004... Byline: John Dix Is the collapse of CeBIT America last week, six weeks after the announcement that Comdex was canceled for 2004, all the evidence we need to conclude there is no longer a need for big, general-purpose computing conferences?...

Intelliden gobbles up competitor.
August 9, 2004... Byline: DENISE DUBIE Management software company Intelliden last week said it has acquired competitor Gold Wire Technology in a deal that will result in products that marry configuration and compliance management. Industry watchers say...

Fed up hospitals defy patching rules.
August 9, 2004... Byline: ELLEN MESSMER Amid growing worries that Windows-based medical systems will endanger patients if Microsoft-issued security patches are not applied, hospitals are rebelling against restrictions from device manufacturers that have...

Venture funding chases tried and true.
August 9, 2004... Byline: CARA GARRETSON In deciding where to put their money these days, venture capitalists appear to have given up looking for the "new, new thing," at least temporarily, and instead are investing in companies that are trying to improve...

Digging into Microsoft's search efforts; Desktop could be at security risk under universal search plans, experts warn.
August 9, 2004... Byline: JOHN FONTANA Microsoft's developing desktop search technology will have to be complemented by a well-defined security framework, or it will become a nightmare when integrated into a corporate collaboration environment, experts say....

Qwest latest carrier with enterprise woes; Analysts say rising competition and lower prices are to blame.
August 9, 2004... Byline: JIM DUFFY Add Qwest to the list of carriers bludgeoned by the enterprise network services market. The RBOC/interexchange carrier (IXC) last week reported disappointing second-quarter financial results in large part because of...

Oracle lax in response to security flaws.(Brief Article)
August 9, 2004... Byline: JAMES NICCOLAI Oracle has acknowledged the existence of security holes in its database software and said it plans to issue a security alert soon. The U.K. security expert who found the holes criticized Oracle's conduct, saying the...

Going, going . . . 321, gone.
August 9, 2004... Byline: Mark Gibbs "321 Studios regrets to inform you that it has ceased business operations. . . . Despite 321 Studios' best efforts to remain in business, injunctions entered against 321 Studios by three U.S. federal courts earlier this...

Trojan hits Windows PDAs for first time.
August 9, 2004... Byline: ANN BEDNARZ After finding the third malicious program targeting wireless devices in fewer than 60 days, security specialists are warning that it's only a matter of time before attackers launch a serious attack against mobile phones...

Hack . . . hack back . . . repeat; At DefCon, a game of virtual capture the flag keeps eight teams at the keyboard for 36 hours.
August 9, 2004... Byline: RODNEY THAYER, NETWORK WORLD LAB ALLIANCE Hack . . . hack back . . . repeat At DefCon, a game of virtual capture the flag keeps eight teams at the keyboard for 36 hours. LAS VEGAS - Capture the flag might be only a game,...

How Brador works.(trojan backdoor program)(Brief Article)
August 9, 2004... Byline: Ann Bednarz Brador is a classic Trojan backdoor program that opens an infected machine for remote administration, according to Kaspersky Labs. It cannot spread by itself; it launches if a user opens an e-mail attachment in which...

No zero day this July.(July month traditionally bad for security firms)(Brief Article)
August 9, 2004... Byline: Rodney Thayer No zero day this July For no apparent technical reason, July has traditionally been a bad month for the security world. Major vulnerabilities have been announced (such as the Cisco IOS hole revealed last July 18),...

Campuses face complex regulations; Changing landscape puts services - and revenue - in question.(annual conference of the Association for Communications Technology Professionals in Higher Education)
August 9, 2004... Byline: JOHN COX CHICAGO - Federal uncertainty over telecom policy has left network executives in higher education pondering cost trends, technology bets and campus infrastructure options. But the growing availability of broadband...

Blade runners; Early adopters of blade server technology say the benefits aren't science fiction.(Nations Holding Group)
August 16, 2004... Byline: Jennifer Mears Blade runners Early adopters of blade server technology say the benefits aren't science fiction. By JENNIFER MEARS Two years ago, United Title in Westlake Village, Calif., was looking for a load...

Technology testers; Special IT teams evaluate new technology, determine business benefits of deployment.(Information Technology)(Advanced Technology Group )
August 16, 2004... Byline: PHIL HOCHMUTH Changing passwords, swapping out bad hardware and answering users' dumb questions are all part of being in IT. But often the reward for time in the tech trenches is a spot in a corporation's technology evaluation...

Training for convergence.
August 16, 2004... As an engineering manager, one of my responsibilities is to help my employees choose the appropriate training they need to do their jobs and enhance their career growth. To do this, I regularly monitor the direction network technology is taking...

Living on the edge.(Creative Guys)(Innovation Nerds)
August 16, 2004... For the past 20 years, the way you and I have made money in this business has been to pick a spot at the edge of the network and invest - I in the private market, you in the public market. Whole industries were doing the same thing. By moving...