Network World articles from March 2001

Network World archives from March 2001

Nike says i2 fouled its profits; Sportswear maker blames supply-chain software deployment for inventory mess.(Company Operations)
March 1, 2001... While a lot of companies these days fault the U.S. economy for earnings shortfalls, Nike took a different tactic this week when it laid blame for its weak profits with i2 Technologies' supply-chain management software. Nike says it will...

IT workers shake off Seattle quake; One day after a major earthquake rocked the Northwest, most of the region's IT workers were going about their business as usual, although some had to do so from home.(Industry Trend or Event)
March 1, 2001... A magnitude 6.8 earthquake rolled through the Pacific Northwest Wednesday at 1:55 p.m. EST. The Associated Press reported that 12 people were treated at Seattle's Haborview Medical Center, three for serious injuries. There were no other...

Group designed to help women, minorities fill more high-tech jobs gets financial backing.(Government Activity)
March 1, 2001... Network World, 03/01/01 After months of delay, the congressional endeavor to attack the country's critical shortage of high-tech workers has turned to a nonprofit group of business, labor and academic leaders to jump-start its efforts. ...

Verisign, ICANN amend domain agreement.(Company Business and Marketing)
March 1, 2001... VeriSign and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers have reportedly amended the agreements reached two years ago regarding control of .com, .net, and .org Internet domains. VeriSign is set to announce Thursday it will...

Compaq files lawsuit against 'Server Mafia'.(Company Business and Marketing)
March 1, 2001... Compaq has alleged that a company founded by several former employees of its server division are using the computer-giant's intellectual property and trade secrets to launch their own company. Compaq filed the civil suit Feb. 21 against RLX...

Lucent gets lifeline, but banks expect turnaround.(Company Financial Information)
March 1, 2001... Big banks have thrown Lucent a financial lifeline, extending $6.5 billion in credit to the struggling, networking company, but they expect a quick turnaround in return for the loan. Lucent received $4.5 billion of new, 364-day credit...

Gateway pares PC configurations, stresses service.(Company Business and Marketing)
March 1, 2001... Gateway pares PC configurations, stresses service By Kevin McKean PC World, 03/01/01 SAN DIEGO - Stung by what company officials describe as declining customer satisfaction and lower traffic at its network of stores, Gateway Inc....

TRUSTED SYSTEMS SUITE CONTROLS NETWORK ACCESS; COMPANY ROLLS OUT TOOLS DESIGNED TO EASE ADMINISTRATION OF ACCESS CONTROL LISTS IN WINDOWS 2000.(Product Announcement)
March 1, 2001... URBANA, ILL. - Trusted Systems Services is trying to take the edge off managing access control lists in Windows 2000 with the latest edition of its management tool. With SuperCACLS 3.0, a suite of four command-line utilities, users can...

EU vote on directive for telecom industry.(Government Activity)
March 1, 2001... The European Parliament gave support for a new regulatory package aimed at opening up Europe's electronic communications market to greater competition. Members of the European Parliament voted Thursday in favor of a directive on auctioning...

VeriSign sidesteps split-up with ICANN agreement.(Company Business and Marketing)
March 1, 2001... VeriSign apparently will not have to split up its domain-name registration business this spring as previously anticipated, thanks to a tentative agreement with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers that was announced by the...

Video for the Palm of your hand.(Product Announcement)
March 1, 2001... Handheld users can now take their movies on the road, using Generic Media's new gMovie Maker and gMovie Player for the Palm operating system. Released this week, the software allows users to encode video that can be viewed on any device...

Lotus eliminates 183 jobs.(Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
March 2, 2001... Lotus will eliminate 183 jobs as part of a restructuring plan that first surfaced in January, a company spokeswoman confirmed. The IBM subsidiary has 7,500 employees. The Boston Globe reported Friday that the layoffs are part of a Lotus...

Many still lax on securing DNS, study finds.(Product Information)
March 2, 2001... Companies rushed to upgrade Domain Name System software after warnings were issued in late January about a flaw in widely used DNS software. In the past weeks, however, upgrading has come to a halt, concludes the Iceland DNS consultancy and...

Network Associates pays $30m to settle lawsuit.(Company Business and Marketing)
March 2, 2001... Network Associates has agreed to pay $30 million to settle a class-action lawsuit by shareholders. The payment will settle claims by investors who bought the company's stock between Jan. 20, 1998 and April 6, 1999, and who alleged violations of...

Adaptec plans to restructure.(Company Operations)
March 2, 2001... Storage access provider Adaptec on Friday said it will restructure, in an effort to reduce operating expenses by more than $7 million a quarter. Adaptec will take a $10-million charge for the current fiscal quarter, the Milpitas, Calif.,...

Oracle stock hit after earnings warning.(Company Financial Information)
March 2, 2001... Oracle stock took a beating in the first hour of U.S. trading Friday morning, dropping 21% after the business software company Thursday warned that third-quarter earnings will fall short of expectations. In trading volume of more than 82...

Nortel adds to IMAS line to expand DSL coverage.(Nortel Networks Universal Edge IMAS XpressDSL and Nortel Networks Universal Edge IMAS Remote)(Product Announcement)
March 2, 2001... Nortel Networks this week announced two additions to its broadband-access product line designed to enable service providers to address new and underserved DSL markets. The new Universal Edge IMAS Remote and enhancements to the Universal...

Corning cuts photonics jobs, but eyes Lucent unit.(Company Business and Marketing)
March 2, 2001... Corning announced it will cut 825 jobs in its photonic-technologies businesses, in response to weak, market conditions in the telecommunications industry. The layoffs will affect the company's Benton Park, Pa., and Erwin Park, N.Y.,...

Nortel showing signs of life in the enterprise; Though all has been quiet on the Bay Networks front, it won't be for long; new switches and enhancements are on deck.(Company Business and Marketing)
March 2, 2001... SANTA CLARA - Just when you thought it was safe to write off Nortel Networks as an enterprise data networking power, the company is showing some very strong signs of life. Rumored to be the next major vendor to surrender the large...

Users to IBM: Beef up e-commerce and security wares.(Industry Trend or Event)
March 2, 2001... LONG BEACH, CALIF. - Big Blue's largest users have spoken: They want IBM to improve its e-commerce wares and security features. These were just the top two issues that surfaced in a survey by Share, a large IBM user group. The study,...

Bishops order mobile phone masts down.(Industry Trend or Event)
March 2, 2001... ROME - Church towers should be reserved for communications between God and the faithful and cannot be used to host mobile-telephone masts, according to a ruling by the Italian Bishops' Conference published Friday. Italy has an estimated...

Users surprised by HP's plan to end OpenMail development.(Company Business and Marketing)
March 2, 2001... Hewlett-Packard Co.'s confirmation this week that it has released what will be the final version of OpenMail caught users of the software off guard and left them scrambling to find a viable path for their messaging-system future. HP said...

Microsoft releases XML kit.(Product Announcement)
March 2, 2001... Microsoft on Friday released a beta version of its Extensible Markup Language for Analysis software development kit and an updated XML for Analysis protocol specification, giving developers tools needed to write XML-based applications aimed at...

Network Associates pays $30m to settle lawsuit.(Company Business and Marketing)
March 3, 2001... Network Associates has agreed to pay $30 million to settle a class-action lawsuit by shareholders. The payment will settle claims by investors who bought the company's stock between Jan. 20, 1998 and April 6, 1999, and who alleged violations of...

Nortel showing signs of life in the enterprise; Though all has been quiet on the Bay Networks front, it won't be for long; new switches and enhancements are on deck.(Company Business and Marketing)
March 3, 2001... SANTA CLARA - Just when you thought it was safe to write off Nortel Networks as an enterprise data networking power, the company is showing some very strong signs of life. Rumored to be the next major vendor to surrender the large...

Vendors pitch plans for MTU buildouts.(Product Announcement)
March 5, 2001... Two vendors are trying to add juice to the broadband multitenant unit market - one with a break from a past pure optical play; the other with a combo offer of gear for common wiring closets and tenant office suites. Passive optical network...

Intel Developer Forum plays host to InfiniBand.(Product Information)
March 5, 2001... SAN JOSE - Last week's Intel Developer Forum served as a showcase for InfiniBand, the new bus architecture that promises to alleviate many of the bottlenecks clogging servers and storage systems today. InfiniBand is a switched-fabric I/O...

Front and center; Six steps to making a successful presentation about any topic.(Industry Trend or Event)
March 5, 2001... Front and center Six steps to making a successful presentation about any topic. By Kim McGrath ublic speaking. Just the thought of it can make the toughest man crumble. But for many IT professionals, speeches and presentations...

A network traffic control tower; Drag-and-drop interface makes Lightspeed Total Control for e-Business a breeze to use.(Software Review)(Evaluation)
March 5, 2001... Installing firewalls, traffic prioritization tools and bandwidth governors typically involves buying separate products and configuring each via a convoluted, product-specific procedure. Having adequate expertise always on hand to deal with your...

State of convergence; Connecticut deploys voice over IP when its IT department has to make a speedy move to another building.(Government Activity)
March 5, 2001... In most organizations, the migration to voice over IP is being held in check by the inertia of two separate voice and data networks that work just fine. However, nature sometimes gives things a push. The state of Connecticut had...

Congratulations! You're AT&T President for the Day.(Company Operations)(Column)
March 5, 2001... Yankee Ingenuity . Howard Anderson Day job got you down? I am making you AT&T President for the Day - you are now Mike Armstrong. Get ready to make some decisions. Your sales are $67 billion. Business customers are half your business, and...

Flypaper offers collaboration service.(Company Business and Marketing)
March 5, 2001... tart-up Flypaper will this week unveil a hosted service that it says will help customers quickly and easily collaborate online. Flypaper's platform uses a browser-based authoring technology that lets users design a custom portal into the...

Letters to the editor.(Letter to the Editor)
March 5, 2001... Your review "Putting 802.11b to the test" (www.nwfusion.com, DocFinder 3222) mentions the Wire Equivalent Privacy (WEP) protocol. Readers should be aware that researchers at the University of California at Berkeley recently found major security...

Fusion letters.(Letter to the Editor)
March 5, 2001... Disappointing results As a reseller of wireless LANs, I was disappointed with the review "Putting 802.11b to the test." I agree that the Cisco Aironet 340 is the fastest, but the Proxim Harmony is without a doubt the most innovative and...

Recursions, iterations.(Company Operations)
March 5, 2001... Last week we had planned to discuss the obscurata of Domain Name System referrals but we ran out of space. So this week, referrals ahoy. But before we launch into the raging seas of how this works, we need to explain what a referral is: When a...

Quantum bolsters network storage facility; Company's M1500 tape facility prepped for companies that need to grow storage fast.(Product Announcement)
March 5, 2001... IRVINE, CALIF. - Network professionals could better manage and troubleshoot network backups with a new fault-tolerant tape library Quantum announced last week. Quantum's M1500 enterprise tape library is modular and rack-mounted, letting...

802.1Q VLANs for better bandwidth.(Technology Information)
March 5, 2001... The IEEE's 802.1Q standard was developed to address the problem of how to break large networks into smaller parts so broadcast and multicast traffic wouldn't grab more bandwidth than necessary. The standard also helps provide a higher level of...

TRUSTED SYSTEMS SUITE CONTROLS NETWORK ACCESS; COMPANY ROLLS OUT TOOLS DESIGNED TO EASE ADMINISTRATION OF ACCESS CONTROL LISTS IN WINDOWS 2000.(Product Announcement)
March 5, 2001... URBANA, ILL. - Trusted Systems Services is trying to take the edge off managing access control lists in Windows 2000 with the latest edition of its management tool. With SuperCACLS 3.0, a suite of four command-line utilities, users can...

At least they are consistent.(airports)(Industry Trend or Event)(Column)
March 5, 2001... As a general rule, I don't like airports. This is a shame, since I spend so much time in them. Now I have yet another reason to dislike them, or at least the people who manage them. It seems that some airports are trying to muscle their...

Awhile back I ran into a Realtor who was in a tizzy because a typographical error in a newspaper ad had listed her client's luxurious colonial at a price that couldn't fetch the most dilapidated fixer-upper in Massachusetts. She was dreading the onslaught.(Industry Trend or Event)(Column)
March 5, 2001... Of course, no one was going to suggest that her client would be bound - legally, ethically or otherwise - to sell the house for a song simply because a human being hit the wrong key when inputting that price. So why all the caterwauling...

news briefs.(News Briefs)
March 5, 2001... Nike: Don't blame us; blame i2 While many firms are faulting the U.S. economy for earnings shortfalls, Nike took a different tack last week when it laid blame for weak profits with i2 Technologies' supply-chain management software. Nike...

carrier briefs.(Company Business and Marketing)
March 5, 2001... Qwest Communications this summer plans to seek permission from federal regulators to offer long-distance services in one of the 14 states where it provides local service, CEO Joseph Nacchio says. Applications for the other 13 states will...

Is VoIP a good bet for the enterprise?; Voice over IP offers integration and cost benefits, but there are areas where using the technology doesn't make sense.(Internet/Web/Online Service Information)
March 5, 2001... Voice over IP is ready for prime time in the enterprise network for three reasons. First, voice over IP helps companies begin to integrate corporate data applications with voice applications. Second, voice over IP can bring significant savings...

VOIP no side.(Internet/Web/Online Service Information)
March 5, 2001... Voice over IP works, in some cases, extremely well. But there's a big difference between something working and its being ready for prime time. Let's look at some places where voice over IP doesn't make sense. Start with voice over the...

Network security's need for speed.(Technology Information)(Column)
March 5, 2001... If the turnout for Network World's "Security Showdown" a few weeks ago at ComNet 2001 is any indicator, many people have network security on their minds. A question I made to Check Point about the performance of software-based security...

TALISMA HELPS TRACK E-COMM CUSTOMERS.(Product Announcement)
March 5, 2001... KIRKLAND, WASH. - Talisma this week will announce an updated version of its customer-relationship management suite that will help e-commerce ventures keep track of what customers are doing and help them when needed. The Talisma eCRM Suite,...

Enterprise Applications briefs.(Product Announcement)
March 5, 2001... IBM announced last week it has integrated the IBM Content Manager, a repository for storing and managing text and multimedia documents, into Siebel Systems' Call Center suite to make it easier for service representatives to get customer history...

Collaborative effort simplified using WebEx.(Company Business and Marketing)
March 5, 2001... Web-based presentations improve on standard conference calls because they add visual cues that keep the mind focused. But even more impressive are interactive sessions that let participants annotate what they see or take control of the...

Vendors pass VoIp interop hurdle; But gateway-to-gateway problems persist, and configuration remains difficult.(Industry Trend or Event)
March 5, 2001... In a groundbreaking public display of voice-over-IP interoperability, nine vendors tried to prove their convergence hardware and software could work together to produce end-to-end toll-quality voice calls. During this first public...

Miercom VoIP test scenarios; None.(Technology Information)
March 5, 2001... We asked vendors to demonstrate interoperability on three levels, ranging from a basic call completion between two endpoints to gatekeeper-to-gatekeeper communication across domains. Vendors selected the scenario that best suited their...

Toward a new generation of user groups.(Industry Trend or Event)
March 5, 2001... There's something about the nationwide wave of DSL customer service disaster stories that has touched a nerve. All over the Internet, sites and organizations are popping up to battle the big carriers over rotten DSL service, and, while they're...

infra briefs.(Product Announcement)
March 5, 2001... Enterasys Networks this week will announce high-density fiber-optic modules for its Matrix E6 and Matrix E7 wiring closet switches. The two new modules contain 24 and 48 100BaseFX ports for connecting servers or workstations over long distances...

Sanrise unleashes storage services; Start-up offers disk-on-demand, data backup and vaulting services.(Company Business and Marketing)
March 5, 2001... Calling Sanrise a start-up is misleading. The managed storage service provider, which incorporated less than a year ago, already has more than 600 ready-made customers in the U.S., Europe and Asia using its network back-up and recovery...

DSL lawsuits multiply in California; Pacific Bell charged with selling mass-market service before it was ready to provision.(Company Business and Marketing)
March 5, 2001... Dominant California local carrier Pacific Bell is battling at least three class-action lawsuits over its mass-market DSL offerings, part of a coast-to-coast wave of disgust over Bell DSL promotional practices. Last month a law firm in San...

LUXCORE TOUTING A BREAKTHROUGH PHOTONIC ROUTER.(Company Business and Marketing)
March 5, 2001... ATLANTA - Pundits say electronics will always be needed in optical networking because routing intelligence cannot yet manifest itself in photons and will not be able to do so for many years. But if electronics are necessary, an "end-to-end,...

Ask Dr. Intranet.(Product Support)
March 5, 2001... We run Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol & DNS servers on Windows 2000 Server without Active Directory. How do you send the Domain Suffix Search Order to DHCP clients running Windows 98 and Win 2000 Professional? There is no built-in...

Shedding new light on dark fiber; DARK FIBER.(Technology Information)
March 5, 2001... Enterprise customers are finally seeing the light when it comes to obtaining huge chunks of bandwidth in campus and metropolitan-area networks. Large organizations now have the option of getting out of the business of leasing and lighting...

Boldly going to records.(Technology Information)
March 5, 2001... This week we'll begin to discuss the records that DNS servers use to describe their view of the name space they are responsible for, and we'll discuss what is common to most servers based on the Berkeley Internet Name Domain (BIND) system, the...

BROADWING OFFERS STRONGER MGMT. TOOLS FOR VPNS.(Product Announcement)
March 5, 2001... AUSTIN, TEXAS - Broadwing Communications claims customers can keep a better handle on their VPNs with enhanced tools the carrier announced last week. Broadwing eClass IP VPN users can now change traffic prioritization, create or delete...

Sun offers preconfigured SAN; Company trying to make inroads against storage vendors such as EMC.(Company Business and Marketing)
March 5, 2001... Looking to bolster its position in the market for storage products, Sun last week announced it is shipping preconfigured storage-area network systems designed to help customers get a SAN up and running more quickly. The package combines...

Keeping tabs on IT buying.(Industry Trend or Event)
March 5, 2001... With financial firms investing millions or billions of dollars annually on network services, software development and other IT projects, spending can easily get out of control. Costs escalate as departments spend away, leaving procurement...

Nortel showing signs of life in the enterprise; Though all has been quiet on the Bay Networks front, it won't be for long; new switches and enhancements are on deck.(Company Business and Marketing)
March 5, 2001... SANTA CLARA - Just when you thought it was safe to write off Nortel Networks as an enterprise data networking power, the company is showing some very strong signs of life. Rumored to be the next major vendor to surrender the large...

Microsoft users keep eyes on networks, not courtroom.(Company Business and Marketing)
March 5, 2001... WASHINGTON, D.C. - As Microsoft was arguing for its life last week in a federal courtroom, the software giant's customers were going about business as usual. Given that the 3-year-old case could drag on for another year or two, most IT...

Verio adds Oracle8i database to ASP offerings.(Company Business and Marketing)
March 5, 2001... ENGLEWOOD, COLO. - Responding to the growing demand for managed services from small to midsize companies, Web hosting firm Verio announced last week it will offer the Oracle8i database on a monthly subscription basis. The service will give...

'Decoy nets' gain backers in battle against hackers.(Technology Information)
March 5, 2001... ORLANDO - As hackers obtain ever more dangerous and easy-to-use tools, they are being countered by novel defense strategies. Witness the experimental idea of setting up a decoy network separate from your real one to fool intruders as they try...

3Com woes mounting; Layoffs, financial slump dog firm.(Company Operations)
March 5, 2001... SANTA CLARA - When it rains it pours, they say, and last week was an exceptionally soggy one for 3Com. News of layoffs and a warning about an upcoming quarterly report have analysts doubting the company's ability to grow, although they add...

Waiting for wireless.(Industry Trend or Event)(Column)
March 5, 2001... If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make, who would you call and what would you say? And why are you waiting? - Stephen Levine, author and philosopher. The wireless applications market has attracted far...

Users to IBM: Beef up e-commerce and security wares.(Company Business and Marketing)
March 5, 2001... LONG BEACH, CALIF. - Big Blue's largest users have spoken: They want IBM to improve its e-commerce wares and security features. These were just the top two issues that surfaced in a survey by Share, a large IBM user group. The study,...

AT&T SHEDS CABLE, INTERNATIONAL ASSETS.(Company Business and Marketing)
March 5, 2001... BEDMINSTER, N.J. - AT&T's sale last week of cable and international network assets may bode well for the carrier's bottom line, but analysts say AT&T will have to dump more assets to get back on track. AT&T announced it was selling cable...

Bells are failing to compete as they promised.(Company Business and Marketing)
March 5, 2001... WASHINGTON, D.C. - Call it the "quid" without the "pro quo." In a grand bargain over the past few years, the government has allowed the eight dominant local carriers - the seven original Bells plus GTE - to shrink to four in exchange for...

Script: ATM audio primer.(Technology Information)
March 5, 2001... For years, managers of corporate communications networks thought of data networks and voice networks as completely separate - one network dedicated to data and one dedicated to voice. But many now think it would be more efficient if all...

Audio primers.(Brief)
March 5, 2001... These 5 to 10-minute primers give a quick overview of an area of technology. Most are have slides to help illustrate how the given technology works. IP Multicast ATM Coming soon: Ipv6, Storage area networks (SAN), Cable vs. DSL...

A group of conservative think tanks last week wrote Congress panning a growing number of calls to split regional Bell operating companies into wholesale and retail units.(News Briefs)
March 5, 2001... A group of conservative think tanks last week wrote Congress panning a growing number of calls to split regional Bell operating companies into wholesale and retail units, with the wholesale companies making local loops equally available to all...

[0] Toshiba jumps into appliance server market.(Product Announcement)
March 5, 2001... Toshiba entered the fast-growing appliance server market this week with a system designed to reduce the setup and maintenance woes users face with remote offices and limited IT staff. Observers say the Magnia SG10 is worth looking at for...

[1] Toshiba jumps into appliance server market.(Product Announcement)
March 5, 2001... Toshiba entered the fast-growing appliance server market this week with a system designed to reduce the setup and maintenance woes users face with remote offices and limited IT staff. Observers say the Magnia SG10 is worth looking at for...

Oracle releases disaster recovery software.(Product Announcement)
March 7, 2001... Oracle Wednesday announced new software designed to make it easier for companies to maintain a back-up copy of their database, with the goal of preserving data in the event of a system failure, human error or natural disaster. Called Data...

Everest lets users scale bandwidth a step at a time; MTU provider also introduced customer care portal.(Product Announcement)
March 7, 2001... Everest Broadband, a building service provider targeting the multitenant unit market, this week introduced two new offerings designed to allow customers to provision their own network-based applications and bandwidth. Everest's Liquid...

Senate strikes down OSHA ergonomic rules.(Government Activity)
March 7, 2001... The U.S. Senate late Tuesday voted down ergonomic workplace rules imposed by former President Clinton during his final weeks in office. Senators voted 56 to 44 to rescind the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) rules that...

Access to Internet domain databases to be simplified.(Industry Trend or Event)
March 7, 2001... Experts have recommended that access to the Internet's Whois service that allows users to look up ownership information on Internet domain names in the .com, .org and .net top-level domains be made simpler. Since Network Solutions lost its...

Hurry up and wait for speedy wireless nets.(Company Business and Marketing)
March 7, 2001... Today, we live in a second-generation wireless world, but the next wave is bearing upon us--if gingerly. With it comes a promise of a more robust network that puts your whole MP3 collection within reach, keeps your calendar updated to the...

GPRS handsets expected in volume by third quarter.(Company Business and Marketing)
March 7, 2001... The lack of General Packet Radio Service mobile handsets which has been hampering the rollout of these services should ease by the third quarter of this year, according to David Almstrom, vice president of business strategy for L.M. Ericsson...

Apple releases Mac OS X to manufacturing.(Product Announcement)
March 7, 2001... Apple Wednesday announced that it has completed work on its Mac OS X and released it to manufacturing for production. Mac OS X will ship on March 24 for a suggested retail price of $129, the company said in a statement. The release date is...

No workers, no offices: The virtual company.(Company Business and Marketing)
March 7, 2001... Bob Aldrich, a 30-year veteran of the energy business, had plans for a small, innovative electric generator that could power shopping malls and corporate campuses. There was just one problem: Potential customers wouldn't give him a contract...

No 'Net user is immune to online fraud, study says.(Industry Trend or Event)
March 7, 2001... The widespread adoption of new technologies has created new opportunities for fraud that any Internet user is susceptible to, a situation made worse by ignorance about the issue, according to a new study released this week. The top...