Network World articles from August 2005

Network World archives from August 2005

In briefs: Security vulnerabilities up 11%.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... * The SANS Institute last week reported 422 new Internet security vulnerabilities discovered during the second quarter, an increase of nearly 11% from the first quarter, with weaknesses in popular back-up software highlighting the report....

Privacy bill calls.
August 1, 2005... Byline: John Dix In response to a string of prominent data privacy gaffes this past spring, Congress just proposed legislation that will have broad IT implications for many companies. The Personal Data Privacy and Security Act of...

Learn to love e-mail attachments again; * File transfer appliance from Accellion aims to ease e-mail attachment headaches.
August 1, 2005... Byline: Linda Musthaler Documents are the lifeblood of every organization. Whether they take the form of text-based content, databases, spreadsheets or graphic files, we use documents to keep track of information and to share it with...

Apps acceleration market in flux.
August 1, 2005... Byline: Phil Hochmuth A run on acquisitions of WAN/LAN acceleration vendors is causing confusion for those exploring the technology, which promises to speed key corporate applications, experts say. But those with such gear already...

BellSouth software to safeguard DSL users.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Byline: Jim Duffy BellSouth last week unveiled Internet security software for small-business and residential DSL users. The company's Internet Security offerings consist of three products. One is designed to keep viruses, worms and...

Learn, shop, gawk at LinuxWorld San Francisco; * What you'll see at LinuxWorld San Francisco.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Byline: Phil Hochmuth The summer edition of LinuxWorld takes place next week at San Francisco's Moscone Convention Center. Linux pros on the West Coast, or those heading there should find plenty at the show to keep them entertained and...

Readers offer opinions on Wi-Fi theft; * The 'Case of the Wi-Fi Bandit'.
August 1, 2005... Byline: Joanie Wexler The "Case of the Wi-Fi Bandit" in Florida, discussed in the July 20 issue of this newsletter http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/wireless/2005/0718wireless2.html?rl, would be fascinating for a moot court to...

Bill to update Telecom Act.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Byline: Jim Duffy A U.S. senator last week introduced legislation that some say is a first step in reworking the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) submitted the Broadband Consumer Choice Act of 2005, a bill...

What is EV-DO?(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Byline: Steve Blass I've heard a lot about high-speed wireless data services called EV-DO. What is that? EV-DO stands for Evolution Data Optimized (or Data Only). It is a third-generation Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) cellular...

Black Hat wrangling.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Network World Test Alliance member Rodney Thayer joins the program from the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas to discuss the legal wrangling of researcher Michael Lynn. A former ISS staffer, Lynn exposed a previously unknown...

The CEO's sidekick; All the world's a stage for demo guy Jim Grubb.
August 1, 2005... Byline: Phil Hochmuth Cisco CEO John Chambers often gets topical during his trade show keynotes. At a recent event, he spent several minutes outlining a litany of IT headaches facing the U.S. healthcare industry, and of course, some of...

Google Mini - A cheap GSA?
August 1, 2005... To many, it would appear that the Google Mini appliance at $3,000 offers many of the same features as the Google Search Appliance but at about a tenth of the cost. Be forewarned: The Mini is limited in some pretty important areas. The...

CTO with a bug ... well, you know where.(Chief Technology Officer)
August 1, 2005... Byline: Paul McNamara It's not every day that a CTO at a well-known company accuses me of exhibiting callous disregard for human life. In fact, I'm fairly certain that what you're about to read constitutes a first. I am innocent,...

The life and times of an RFID chip.(Radio Frequency Identification)
August 1, 2005... Byline: Sandra Gittlen McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas is launching a $125 million program to embed RFID chips in baggage tags as a way to meet post-Sept. 11 security screening mandates and to improve the accuracy of...

Firms should stricly control employee use of mobile devices.
August 1, 2005... Companies have done a pretty good job of addressing the most pressing nearterm wireless security issues, which are mainly at the network and authentication levels. They've paid a premium for BlackBerry's Triple-DES and Fort Knox-like...

How we did it.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... We tested Google Search Appliance (GB-1000) within an intranet and on public Web sites and indexed production sites with up to around 20,000 documents each. A full implementation test was performed on a multinational and multilingual Web...

Black Hat event highlights RFID and VoIP security threats; Conference attendees also get a lesson in de-perimeterization.(Radio Frequency Identification)(Voice over Identification)
August 1, 2005... Byline: Ellen Messmer LAS VEGAS - The Black Hat conference - an annual event where security professionals get in touch with their inner hacker and vice versa - has for nine years been a stage for detailing new security exploits and...

SBC/AT&T merger: Full steam ahead.
August 1, 2005... Byline: Denise Pappalardo While a number of hurdles remain, SBC and AT&T are looking at a rather smooth merger process thus far. As of last week, only seven states that can approve or reject the $16 billion merger had yet to weigh in....

In brief: XO expands VoIP to Minneapolis.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... XO Communications last week said it is expanding its business VoIP service to Minneapolis. The company's XOptions Flex service combines unlimited local and long-distance calling, dedicated Internet access up to 3M bit/sec, and Web hosting...

How we did it.(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
August 1, 2005... Tests were executed with Spirent's Avalanche 2500 (operating system Version 62112, product Version 6.51, two CPUs) and Avalanche Commander v6.51 Build 34500. The server under test included Internet Information Server (IIS) on Windows...

ICE helps VoIP traverse firewalls.(Interactive Connectivity Establishment)
August 1, 2005... One of the biggest benefits of VoIP is the ability to supply remote workers with cost-effective telecom access anywhere a broadband connection exists. But ensuring VoIP connectivity often proves challenging because of the number and variety...

Google searches for an enterprise space.
August 1, 2005... The Google Search Appliance packages up the company's famously accurate technology into an easy-to-use search engine for intranets and public-facing corporate sites. In our Clear Choice test of the GB-1001 model, we found that while the...

Reader: Where VoIP encryption is needed; * Reader argues for VoIP encryption in certain situations.(Voice over Internet Protocol)
August 1, 2005... Byline: Steve Taylor, Larry Hettick In continuing our discussion on encryption of VoIP, one reader responded with an analysis of areas where he felt it was important to encrypt VoIP traffic. The reader pointed out that while he...

Barracuda boxes spam; New company uses appliance model to catch spam.
August 1, 2005... Byline: James E. Gaskin One of the common complaints I'm hearing as I host the Network World Small Business Technology Tour this summer is about spam. We've been fighting it for years, and although the tide may be turning in our favor,...

In brief: Microsoft renames Longhorn.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... * Microsoft has announced that the official name for its operating system, previously known as Longhorn, will be Windows Vista. The software is due out in 2006, though Microsoft said that a first beta is expected to be available to...

Aspect reaches beyond the call center with speech technology.
August 1, 2005... Byline: Jennifer Mears Aspect Communications, which specializes in call center workforce management applications, is updating its self-service software so customers can expand their use of speech-powered technology. Customer Self...

IPv6: Time's still not right.(internet protocol)
August 1, 2005... Byline: Johna Till Johnson It's been more than 10 years since the development of IPv6, yet it's had virtually zero adoption among U.S. enterprise customers and service providers, even though the U.S. Office of Management and Budget...

Confusion is essence of Cisco's AON.
August 1, 2005... Byline: Kevin Tolly In these first few weeks of Cisco's Application-Oriented Network era, one of the biggest challenges has been to understand what AON really is. While the name strongly suggests an "awareness" of applications, the...

WLAN vendors make summer splash.
August 1, 2005... Byline: John Cox Most of the news coming out of the wireless LAN industry this summer has been of the product enhancement variety, but this week's debut of start-up Bountiful WiFi is an exception. The year-old company's first...

MCI boosts its SLAs.(service-level agreements)
August 1, 2005... Byline: Denise Pappalardo MCI is improving its Managed LAN service-level agreements by offering customers better repair time and availability guarantees. The carrier says it guarantees it will repair a Managed LAN service outage within...

Expand Networks adds WAFS support; New gear caches files locally, syncs with central servers.(wide-area file services)
August 1, 2005... Byline: Tim Greene Expand Networks this week is expected to announce support for wide-area file services that can help businesses save money by consolidating servers into data centers rather than maintaining servers at branch offices....

Out of the crossfire, into deployment.(application development)
August 1, 2005... Byline: Daniel Blum As an analyst, I often feel most validated when groups on both sides of an issue are equally upset about a presentation I've given. When in the past both Microsoft and Liberty Alliance complained about my positions...

Microsoft offers look at new Vista.
August 1, 2005... Byline: Tim Greene Corporate developers eyeing Microsoft's upcoming Vista operating system should test it against their current applications before making any deployment decisions, experts say. Microsoft last week released a beta...

Michael Lynn and Cisco: Stepping in front of the freight train.
August 1, 2005... Byline: Mark Gibbs "There are, and always have been, people who know how to crash the Internet but have so far chosen not to do so." - Stephen Cobb, Certified Information Systems Security Professional and author of Privacy...

PC blades get clean bill of health; Healthcare group finds them more secure, less costly.
August 1, 2005... Byline: Deni Connor Northwestern Memorial Physicians Group has decided that patients and traditional PCs just don't mix in the exam rooms at its clinics. On one hand, medical workers for the Chicago-area healthcare collective need...

Firms should not strictly control employee use of mobile devices.
August 1, 2005... Corporations have legitimate concerns about the latest class of products to connect to the corporate network. Employees are finding more ingenious ways to use devices such as smart phones and PDAs to stay connected, access important data...

What's the meaning of 'privacy'? * Can we all agree on the meaning of 'identity', 'privacy' and 'personal'?
August 1, 2005... Byline: Dave Kearns In the past few issues, I've been talking about vendor offerings in the identity management space. I'll get back to the conversations I've recently had with vendors next week, but a couple of things have popped up...

Ramping up federal telework adoption; Congressman wants to withhold funding from agencies that don't promote telework.(Cyber Security Industry Alliance)
August 1, 2005... Byline: Ann Bednarz There are renewed efforts underway to encourage the government to put more teeth into its telework initiatives. Despite over a decade of increasing adoption, telework remains the exception in most federal agencies....

Management in a world of inescapable data; * Review: 'Inescapable Data'.(Book Review)
August 1, 2005... Byline: Dennis Drogseth I don't usually do columns about books - I think this is the first - but I decided to make an exception when I was contacted by Chris Stakutis, one of the authors of "Inescapable Data: Harnessing the Power of...

More syncing and a back-up solution.
August 1, 2005... Byline: Mark Gibbs This week we have a potpourri of products, a melange of mechanisms, an assortment of accessories. First is a follow-up to last's week column on synching PC data using a product called FolderShare. We just took a look...

Start-up to index e-mail, other unstructured content.(Index Engines)
August 1, 2005... Byline: Deni Connor A new company started by a pair of storage industry veterans last week announced it is readying an appliance that indexes e-mail and other unstructured information so it can be searched and recovered more quickly....

Three things that will make me happy; * Three features that Web site owners should include to put smiles on users' faces.
August 1, 2005... Byline: Mark Gibbs There are three simple and often overlooked details that many site administrators seem to either don't know about or don't care about but that should be fixed to make their users happy. Me included. The first is...

Sun eyes throughput-computing push.(Sun Microsystems Inc.)
August 1, 2005... Byline: Jennifer Mears Sun is set to begin a major push to improve computing throughput with the release of systems based on its eight-core Niagara processor in the first quarter of next year. Analysts say the systems, which are...

No room for complacency in net management.(data network management)
August 1, 2005... Byline: Frank Dzubeck Managing a data network in 2005 is much simpler than in 1995 or even 1985. The tools are more intelligent, and the information available is more accurate and complete. But network managers have let this...

A closer look at ITIL.(Information Technology Infrastructure Library)
August 1, 2005... Byline: Denise Dubie The Information Technology Infrastructure Library is designed to help cut costs and streamline IT operations, and is finding converts seeking to maintain regulatory compliance as well. Initially popular overseas,...

Cisco nabs software firm.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Byline: James Niccolai and IDG News Service Cisco last week announced it has agreed to acquire Sheer Networks, which makes software designed to help service providers and large corporations manage complex networks. Cisco will pay...

In brief: GroundWork Open Source Solutions names new CEO.(appointment of Ranga Rangachari as Chief Executive Officer)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... * GroundWork Open Source Solutions, a maker of open source-based IT management software, has named Ranga Rangachari as president and CEO. He brings more than 20 years of sales and management experience from software companies such as Invio...

News briefs: 'Net security vulnerabilities up 11%.
August 1, 2005... * The SANS Institute last week reported 422 new Internet security vulnerabilities discovered during the second quarter, an increase of nearly 11% from the first quarter. Weaknesses in popular back-up software highlighted the report . Two...

IBM x336 packs power in a slim server framework.(Product/Service Evaluation)
August 1, 2005... If you are looking for lots of server power packed into a small space, look no further than the IBM xServer 336 series. In our tests, we were impressed with its solid performance, a great physical design and management features. The...

A look at Motorola's i836 phone.(Product/Service Evaluation)
August 1, 2005... Byline: Keith Shaw The scoop: i836 phone , by Motorola with Nextel service, about $150 (after rebates and service plan agreement). What it is: The i836 is a cell phone packed with business-related features and applications, such...

Router flaw sparks battle; Cisco and critics spar over what constitutes responsible disclosure.
August 1, 2005... Byline: Ellen Messmer, Phil Hochmuth LAS VEGAS - Researcher Michael Lynn quit his job at Internet Security Systems last week, then defied ISS and Cisco by revealing that unpatched Cisco routers can be hacked by a buffer-overflow...

Windows x64 calls for 32-bit rewrites.
August 1, 2005... Byline: Robert McMillan and IDG News Service Companies looking to become early adopters of Microsoft's Windows x64 Edition operating systems might find that their favorite anti-virus software no longer works on their new desktops. ...

Federal mandate to boost IPv6, but ...
August 1, 2005... Byline: Cara Garretson The federal government's mandated move to IPv6 over the next few years is expected to also spur demand for the upgraded protocol in portions of the private sector. However, many enterprise network executives,...

Pay-as-you-go pricing picks up.(Industry Overview)
August 1, 2005... Byline: Denise Dubie Software as a service can benefit customers looking to bring specific application expertise in-house without committing to a large upfront investment. On the other hand, an alternative licensing model could impede...

Time change poses no Y2K replay.
August 1, 2005... Byline: Stacy Cowley and Idg News Service A bill expected to gain approval from Congress soon means some programmers would again need to check their code for potential problems handling a calendar adjustment. Congress is proposing a...

Fujitsu software to tackle enterprise information.
August 1, 2005... Byline: Martyn Williams and IDG News Service Fujitsu is developing two applications that could help companies make better use of their data and better handle information flowing into their organizations. The first is a search tool...

Time to dump that MasterCard?
August 1, 2005... Byline: Scott Bradner Half of the shoes have dropped on CardSystems, but it's unclear whether the others will. They should, and this company should be shut out of the credit card-processing business. Since I last wrote about...

Avaya bolsters automated voice apps; New software designed to help integrate voice recognition, Web programs and databases.
August 1, 2005... Byline: Tim Greene Avaya this week is announcing two software platforms to create and execute applications that answer phones and respond to spoken words to deliver information sought by callers. The Call Portal and Dialog Designer...

Forum seeks to keep grids safe.
August 1, 2005... Byline: James Niccolai The Enterprise Grid Alliance, which includes several top vendors trying to accelerate the use of grid computing by big businesses, has published its first paper on the unique security requirements of grids. ...

Cisco IOS exploit available; * Patches from Gentoo, Debian, KDE, others * Beware new Trojan that infects .exe files on the target machine * Black Hat event highlights RFID and VoIP security threats.
August 1, 2005... Byline: Jason Meserve Despite a legal settlement between Cisco and security research Michael Lynn over any future disclosure of an exploit for the IOS operating system that runs many Cisco routers, the exploit as become public: ...

The view on Vista; * Windows Vista: How to get Beta 1 and a likely shipping schedule.
August 1, 2005... Byline: Dave Kearns If one more pundit, one more reporter or one more half-wit writes or says "Hasta la Vista, Windows!" to me, I'll scream so loud that they'll here me in Latvia where - these same humorists will tell you - "vista"...

Striking a balance; Home-based workers need delineation between their personal and professional lives.
August 1, 2005... Byline: Sandra Gittlen There are many myths surrounding the home-based worker. Folks think we are forever in bunny slippers and pajamas watching soap operas in the afternoons. If they only knew the truth. Home-based workers tend to...

VLAN configuration question.
August 1, 2005... Byline: Ron Nutter I am studying for my CCNA (self taught). I'm trying to understand an issue. If I had Host A and Host B attached to individual switch ports with Host A in VLAN 2 and Host B in VLAN 3, and then a third switch port...

Letters to the editor: "Competing for jobs".
August 1, 2005... Be very afraid The article, "Malware changing the way people use 'Net, study says" states: "Nine out of 10 Internet users say the threat posed by spyware and other malware has forced them to change their online habits." I wonder, was...

How endpoint security works; * About endpoint security.(Brief Article)
August 2, 2005... Byline: Tim Greene If you are interested in using VPNs nowadays, you should also be interested in using endpoint security. This software sits on remote machines that are trying to access the VPN and checks whether the device meets...

Expand Networks offers WAFS; * Expand Networks puts WAFS into appliances.(wide area file services)
August 2, 2005... Byline: Denise Dubie As the application acceleration market continues to consolidate, companies such as Expand Networks are loading their boxes with more features to help customers consolidate their data centers. Expand this week...

AdRem upgrades FreeCon for NetWare; * FreeCon for NetWare Version 5 supports OES.
August 2, 2005... Byline: Dave Kearns There's breaking news on the NetWare utilities front! Well, "breaking" in that it's recent - not something that happened a few years ago but of which I only just became aware. Our old friends at AdRem Software have...

Is storage archiving child's play? * What to do about e-mail clutter.(Column)
August 2, 2005... Byline: Mike Karp My daughter Nina has always taken exception to the taunting "neener-neener-neener" chant that little children level at one another when they are feeling obstreperous, so I stopped doing it to her two years ago. I...

Playing the CPE game.(Customer Premise(s) Equipment)(Industry Overview)
August 2, 2005... Byline: Daniel Briere, Patrick Hurley Service providers are seeing CPE plays from all sorts of vendors these days - not just traditional "telco" vendors. There's convergence afoot with the traditional "retail" networking vendors...

Forum aims to replace BIOS; * The Unified Extensible Firmware Interface Forum.(Brief Article)
August 2, 2005... Byline: Deni Connor Last week a variety of vendors - including IBM, HP and Dell - formed the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) Forum to define a model to replace the basic input/output system (BIOS) in today's PCs and...

Standardization: second step to utility; * Standardizing across data center areas.
August 2, 2005... Byline: Andreas M. Antonopoulos On the road to a flexible data center, there are four major steps: consolidation, standardization, virtualization and utility. In this article, we will examine the challenges and implications of...

Tolly tests QoS on Cisco, Extreme switches; * Results of Tolly Group's QoS tests of Cisco, Extreme gear.(Quality of service ()(Brief Article)
August 2, 2005... Byline: Jeff Caruso Kevin Tolly recently let me know about another LAN-related test his firm performed. This one, commissioned by Avaya, pits Extreme Networks switches against Cisco switches. The approach, Tolly says, was...

In e-mail, first impressions stick; * In e-mail, you really don't have a second chance to make a first impression.(Brief Article)
August 2, 2005... Byline: M. E. Kabay When you receive an e-mail message from a stranger, do you care whether it has spelling mistakes and grammar mistakes? What about offensive language and off-color humor? Does the context matter? For example, do you...

Working to the top; * What you can do to overcome the obstacles you'll encounter as you climb the corporate ladder.(Brief Article)
August 2, 2005... Byline: Amy Schurr If you have executive aspirations, be prepared for the obstacles you'll encounter on your way up the ladder. Career services company Lee Hecht Harrison says that along the way, managers must learn and hone the...

An IM exchange that could be actionable; * An example of why employers need to manage IM use.(Excerpt)
August 2, 2005... Byline: Michael Osterman IMbrella Software, which sells products to help organizations manage the use of consumer instant-messaging clients in the workplace, relates this short excerpt of an IM conversation that one of IMbrella's...

Are user groups still effective at influencing carriers? * Reader feedback on carrier user groups.(Letter to the Editor)
August 2, 2005... Byline: Steve Taylor, Jim Metzler In the past two newsletters, we've been sharing some of the feedback we received when we asked whether user groups are still relevant...

U3 enables you to travel with your data files and leave your laptop at home; * U3 devices are coming! U3 devices are coming!(U3 LLC)
August 2, 2005... Byline: Keith Shaw Circle September 2005 on your calendar as the month when you may no longer have to carry around a laptop with you wherever you go. That's when U3 "smart drives" are expected to hit the market and change the way...

Q&A: Qwest ramps up federal sales effort, Part 2; * Goals for Qwest's Government Services Division.
August 3, 2005... Byline: Carolyn Duffy Marsan In this week's issue of the ISP News Report, we provide the second half of our recent discussion with Diana Gowen, Qwest's new senior vice president of government services sales. In May, Gowen took over...

How a reader became a believer in agentless monitoring; * Agent vs. agentless: a reader's perspective.(Column)
August 3, 2005... Byline: Audrey Rasmussen A few weeks ago, I wrote two articles on agent and agentless monitoring, and I received an interesting note from a reader who shared his experiences with both. Today's column includes excerpts from the note by...

Mailbag: VoIP encryption and law enforcement; * Readers weigh in on VoIP encryption and privacy issues.(Letter to the Editor)
August 3, 2005... Byline: Steve Taylor, Larry Hettick In a recent article concerning VoIP and encryption, we raised the issue of whether we possibly had too much readily available encryption. The rationale was that encryption makes lawful and...

Windows Genuine Headache; * Why you need to know about Microsoft Windows Genuine Advantage.
August 3, 2005... Byline: Dave Kearns While the naming of the next version of Windows was the most covered news out of Redmond last week, another announcement will probably be of more interest to you and might even cause you more headaches than Windows...

So many identity conferences, so little time; * Which of the upcoming identity management shows should Dave attend?(Column)
August 3, 2005... Byline: Dave Kearns Recently I was bemoaning the fact that identity had become so central to computing, business and modern life that the number of shows, conferences and meetings about identity or featuring identity were multiplying...

Expand Networks adds WAFS support; * New gear caches files locally, syncs with central servers.(wide-area file services, Expand Accelerator)
August 3, 2005... Byline: Tim Greene Expand Networks this week is expected to announce support for wide-area file services that can help businesses save money by consolidating servers into data centers rather than maintaining servers at branch offices....

McOutsourcing; * McDonald's franchisees see outsourcing opportunity.
August 3, 2005... Byline: Bill Heldman A local business journal ran a little snippet the other day about a McDonald's franchise with several restaurants here in Denver. This man - let's call him Bob - wants to outsource all of the order-taking at the...