Network World articles from May 2002

Network World archives from May 2002

Hewlett won't fight Delaware court ruling.
May 1, 2002... Walter Hewlett late Tuesday said he will not appeal to the Supreme Court of Delaware regarding a court ruling handed down earlier Tuesday, which rejected a lawsuit he led to throw out Hewlett-Packard's shareholder for its proposed acquisition...

Wireless LAN providers team to offer roaming.(Pass-One)
May 1, 2002... Several wireless LAN service providers and hardware vendors have established an industry association to facilitate WLAN roaming. The association, called Pass-One, plans to set minimum service standards and certify compliancy of member...

BEA, RIM bring Web services to BlackBerry device.
May 1, 2002... BlackBerry maker Research in Motion and BEA Systems are working on a development tool to help programmers create software and Web services for BlackBerry wireless devices, the companies announced Wednesday. San Jose application...

BULLETIN - Sun's Zander to retire.(Ed Zander)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Sun Wednesday announced that Ed Zander, president and COO, will retire from full-time duties with the company, effective July 1, right after the end of the company's fiscal year. The company is holding a conference call with media and analysts...

Windows .Net servers hold their own against Unix.
May 1, 2002... Microsoft's ongoing crusade to establish a firm foothold in the enterprise got a little more traction recently from a benchmark test conducted by Accenture that show Windows .Net servers compared favorably with Unix-based servers running...

Google to be search engine for all AOL brands.
May 1, 2002... Google and AOL Wednesday announced they have agreed to begin offering Google's search engine over all of AOL's Internet. By the end of the second quarter or during the third quarter, Google's search technology will be used in the search...

Marconi timestamps multiservice MPLS; Marconi says all its frame, ATM switches will have it and Ethernet in nine months.
May 1, 2002... Marconi says all its frame, ATM switches will have it and Ethernet in nine months Marconi last week became the latest multiservice core switch vendor to embrace Multi-Protocol Label Switching. Actually, the vendor has been supporting...

Cisco acquires two small firms.(Hammerhead Networks, Navarro Networks)
May 1, 2002... To bolster its IP and Ethernet aggregation offerings, Cisco Wednesday announced definitive agreements to acquire privately-held Hammerhead Networks of Billerica, Mass., and Navarro Networks of Plano, Texas, for a combined stock value of $258...

Sun earns certification for Trusted Solaris 8.
May 1, 2002... A security-hardened version of the Sun Solaris 8 operating system has achieved the international 'Common Criteria' certification after successfully passing a year of vigorous lab tests at Logica, a U.K. lab. Trusted Solaris 8 differs from...

Vigilance offers tailored supply chain management tools.(Vigilance Supplier Management, Vigilance Customer Management, Vigilance Production Management)(Product Announcement)
May 1, 2002... Supply-chain management software developer Vigilance Wednesday is releasing three packaged versions of its event-management software, intended to offer customers tools that can be implemented rapidly. Vigilance's flagship Supply Chain Event...

Adobe wins patent trial against Macromedia.
May 3, 2002... A jury in Delaware has determined that Macromedia infringed on technology patents held by Adobe and has awarded Adobe $2.8 million in damages, the companies announced Thursday. Adobe sued Macromedia in August 2000 in the U.S. District...

Capellas says HP will do more with less.
May 3, 2002... A confident Michael Capellas, chairman and CEO of Compaq, Thursday said that his company's merger with Hewlett-Packard could receive an unexpected financial boost as the combined company thins the ranks of its component suppliers and uses size...

Court OKs check of Vivendi shareholder vote system.
May 3, 2002... A Paris court Thursday approved Vivendi Universal SA's request for an independent examination of the wireless voting system used at its shareholders' meeting on April 24. The system may have been hacked and the outcome of the votes influenced,...

Kournikova virus maker appeals sentence.
May 3, 2002... Jan de Wit, the 21-year-old Dutchman who was sentenced last September to 150 hours of community service for creating and sending out the Anna Kournikova e-mail worm, is appealing the verdict, his lawyer said Friday. "My client does not...

Newsman's start-up eyes multimedia nets.(Sawyer Media)
May 3, 2002... SAN FRANCISCO - MSNBC news anchor and producer Forrest Sawyer saw a problem: Despite recognizing the value of using digital media, businesses were finding the costs associated with creating and managing audio and video content were just too...

WTO: IT industry woes slowing global economy.
May 3, 2002... The global economic decline in 2001 was mainly due to the slump in the IT industry, which will continue to retard any sort of recovery in 2002, the World Trade Organization said in its latest economic report. WTO economists predict a...

Security hole in Flash player could run attack code.
May 3, 2002... A security hole in the way Macromedia's Flash player handles ActiveX content could allow an attacker to run the code of their choice on vulnerable systems, according to a security advisory published by eEye Digital Security late Thursday....

Handspring CFO to quit in June.(Bern Whitney)(Brief Article)
May 3, 2002... Handspring Chief Financial Officer Bern Whitney will resign from the company due to personal reasons, the company said Thursday. Whitney has been with Handspring since its earliest days and helped lead the PDA maker through a high-profile...

Ergonomics rules go voluntary.
May 3, 2002... Workplace ergonomics policies have become voluntary, and while some parties are displeased, they also welcome good news: Reports of injuries are declining, and firms are recognizing the value of keeping employees healthy. The policy change...

Lucent attends to the edge; Company bucks up multiservice switches it admittedly neglected.
May 3, 2002... Company bucks up multiservice switches it admittedly neglected After neglecting the multiservice edge while developing a core ATM switch that was discontinued before it shipped, Lucent has now lavished attention on its lower-end,...

Using SANs for business continuity; Be wary of looming interoperability issues.
May 6, 2002... Using SANs for business continuity Be wary of looming interoperability issues. By Betsy Yocom, Network World Global Test Alliance Business continuance - the ability to get your network up and running after a disaster with minimal...

Brocade's switch earns big numbers; In the category of Best Director-Class SAN Switch . . .(McData's Intrepid 6000 and Brocade Communications Systems' SilkWorm 12000)(Evaluation)
May 6, 2002... If you build a bigger switch, they will come. In a contest between two of only three shipping high-port-density, director-class storage-area network switches today, our Blue Ribbon Award goes to Brocade Communications Systems' SilkWorm...

NetScreen-5200 and NetScreen-208; Exclusive look shows performance improvement but uncovers a few rough edges.(Evaluation)
May 6, 2002... etScreen Technologies has released brand-new hardware products and software upgrades. Hardware that yields throughput over the gigabit mark for firewall and VPN performance, coupled with a revision of its ScreenOS security operating system,...

net buzz.
May 6, 2002... Firing back at Buzz Time for more of your e-mail: An item here that made fun of a dunderhead who answered "yes" when asked for his "sex" on a job application - and then threatened to sue when he didn't get the job - elicited this...

IP switches deliver broadband over cable.
May 6, 2002... Today's broadband options include standard T-1 services, DSL or access to Ethernet-based metropolitan-area networks. T-1 services can be pricey, DSL isn't available everywhere, especially if your location is too far away from the central...

Can the IXCs make it as LECs?
May 6, 2002... You've heard about how the regional Bell operating companies are getting ready to enter the long-distance market? Well, get ready for the next development. The interexchange carriers - or at least WorldCom's MCI unit - are getting ready to...

No guarantees.(Multi-protocol Label Switching )
May 6, 2002... Regarding "Variations on a VPN theme" (www.nwfusion.com, DocFinder: 9224): There is nothing private about Multi-protocol Label Switching - it is no more secure than frame relay, X.25 or a leased line. Just because you can't see the cable or...

Down and dirty with Wireless LAN security; iLabs team puts 802.1x standard to the interoperability test and brings deployment issues to light.
May 6, 2002... iLabs team puts 802.1X standard to the interoperability test Every year since 1986, engineers have taken off their vendor hats and come together at NetWorld+Interop to create a multivendor, interoperability test bed focusing on the hottest...

MPLS: more interesting than you think; This protocol could lead to less expensive, fasert WAN connections.
May 6, 2002... This protocol could lead to less expensive, faster WAN connections. By JOEL SNYDER, NETWORK WORLD GLOBAL TEST ALLIANCE In a drafty warehouse south of the San Francisco Airport, the world's largest Multi-protocol Label Switching...

The skinny on iSCSI SANs; IP storage products prove they can talk to each other and to Fibre Channel gear.
May 6, 2002... In what was a coming-out party for the Internet Small Computer System Interface protocol, these debuting products tested by the iLabs IP storage team showed a high level of interoperability and a surprising level of functionality. The...

VoIP needs more spice before the masses will bite.
May 6, 2002... Enterprise adoption of voice-over-IP services is growing, but at a slower pace than many on the supplier side anticipated. In light of the modest adoption rates, providers continue to expand their offers and sweeten the pot - doubtless to...

Strengthen service-level agreements; Use the right terms in your SLA to make sure service providers deliver what you're paying for.
May 6, 2002... Buying network infrastructure is hard enough, but making sure your service provider lives up to its commitments is an ongoing challenge that takes time and money. Getting what you paid for goes well beyond simply verifying a service...

Automatic and thus meaningless.
May 6, 2002... I n their zeal to protect their companies' secrets, some corporate managers are mostly succeeding at making their employers look dumb while avoiding doing anything real. The following trailer showed up recently on an Internet Engineering...

Quest's tools for Active Directory.(ActiveRoles 4.1 and Spotlight on Active Directory 3.0)(Product Announcement)
May 6, 2002... Quest Software last week released new and updated versions of two tools for managing Active Directory that let IT administrators root out replication problems and more tightly control access to the directory. Spotlight on Active Directory...

Oracle embraces outsourcing; Company expects better support, incentives will bring in extra revenue.
May 6, 2002... After 2 1/2 years of boasting and bumbling, Oracle finally might be hitting its stride with its enterprise outsourcing business. The database giant has made some wrenching internal changes in the past 18 months to make outsourcing a major...

Big names line up for broadband debate.
May 6, 2002... First, the good news: SBC Communications and DIRECWAY, the leading DSL and satellite Internet providers, respectively, will participate in Network World's Broadband Showdown at SuperComm in June. What's more, WorldCom came forth unchallenged to...

Enterprise Applications Briefs.(McAfee WebShield 2.5, Sanctum's AppScan 3.0 and Okena's StormWatch 3.0 security software products introduced)(Product Announcement)
May 6, 2002... McAfee Security this week will announce WebShield 2.5, an updated version of its antivirus scanning gateway appliance, adding an IP routing to better manage traffic back and forth between the gateway and desktops. Before, administrators had to...

ADOMO BOLSTERS SPEECH-RECOGNITION PRODUCT.(AdomoMobile Communications Server 2.0)
May 6, 2002... CUPERTINO, CALIF. - Adomo, whose speech-recognition package lets users check Microsoft Outlook e-mail via phone, is adding a way for business users to place an outbound call via Microsoft's Exchange server to answer e-mail. The dial-out...

ask dr. internet.(Can we install a search engine for our intranet? )
May 6, 2002... We installed a Web-based search engine service on our Web site. Now we want to install one for our intranet, and the confusion begins. The technical staff says it is not possible because of our firewall. Can we install a search engine for our...

Carriers beef up service-level agreements; Covad makes new DSL guarantees.
May 6, 2002... SANTA CLARA - Covad Communications has begun offering broader service-level agreements, a move that could help the DSL carrier differentiate its services from those of incumbents if it can deliver on its lofty promises. Covad's new SLAs,...

Bridges: Taking wireless to the wide area; WIRELESS NETWORKS: Taking LANs to the next step.
May 6, 2002... Wireless 802.11b bridges can stretch the meaning of the word "local" and give business users unexpected flexibility in extending corporate LANs. An 802.11b bridge essentially is a media access control-level wireless access point that's...

Gates, Fiorina: Get out of court and back to work.
May 6, 2002... Bill Gates and Walter Hewlett don't have a lot in common, except that neither should have gone before a judge recently. In Gates' case, that's U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who is hearing the objections of nine states to...

SonicWall VPN box protects remote users.(SonicWall Tele3 Trusted Zone)(Product Announcement)
May 6, 2002... SUNNYVALE, CALIF. - SonicWall this week will introduce a box for telecommuters that isolates corporate VPN connections from other traffic being generated by family members who share home Internet access. SonicWall's Tele3 Trusted Zone,...

Allegro co-founder wants to rework routing.(Troy Dixler)(Interview)
May 6, 2002... Start-up Allegro Networks is building a "multirouter" platform - multiple routers in one chassis - designed to let companies lease physical routers or router ports from a service provider, rather than just a routed service. The company says its...

RiverSoft looks to manage MPLS nets; Latest products target service providers.(Network Management Operating System and Fault Manager 3.1)(Product Announcement)
May 6, 2002... LAS VEGAS - At NetWorld+Interop 2002 Las Vegas this week, network management software maker RiverSoft Technologies will unveil a package the company says can help service providers and large corporations monitor voice and data applications on...

Cost-effective network management.(Ipswitch Software's WhatsUp Gold)(Evaluation)
May 6, 2002... How much do you expect to spend on network management tools? $50,000? $100,000? These are the sort of figures that usually are quoted for serious network management software, yet, as many people will attest, getting your money's worth out of...

Is your forest burning?(domains)
May 6, 2002... Microsoft has come full circle on how much consolidation is possible when moving from Windows NT 4 to Active Directory. In the early days of Windows 2000, Microsoft generally recommended consolidating multiple NT 4 domains into one Active...

Documentum eases Web classification; Company's Content Intelligence Services automates content management.(Brief Article)
May 6, 2002... With corporate Web sites continuing to expand at a rapid clip, Documentum last week announced an add-on to its Web content management platform that automatically tags, categorizes and links content for easier navigation of sites that can be a...

ACIRRO MANAGES DISTRIBUTED DATA.(Acumula)(Product Announcement)
May 6, 2002... BY DENI CONNOR SAN JOSE - Storage vendor Acirro tends to marooned data - it helps customers manage file-level storage data on different devices, in separate geographic locations, in departments and on different networks as if it were part...

Verizon launches 1X phone.
May 6, 2002... Verizon launches 1X phone Verizon Wireless and LG InfoComm have launched the VX1, a 3.8-ounce mobile phone with capabilities to connect to Verizon's new Express Network. The Express Network, which runs on the Code Division Multiple Access...

Telseon CEO remains bullish on Ethernet, wavelength services.(John Kane)(Interview)
May 6, 2002... The Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection filing by Yipes Communications earlier this spring proved that metropolitan Ethernet providers are not immune to the slump driving many competitive telecom carriers out of business and forcing the revenue of...

10G Ethernet set to star at N+I.
May 6, 2002... LAS VEGAS - While the road to developing the 10 Gigabit Ethernet standard has been difficult, proponents hope the largest 10G Ethernet test network, which will be on display at NetWorld+Interop 2002 Las Vegas this week, will go a long way...

CABLE & WIRELESS UPS LATENCY SLAS IN NORTH AMERICA, EUROPE.
May 6, 2002... LONDON - Cable & Wireless last week boosted service-level guarantees for its dedicated IP customers around the globe. The ISP not only improved its latency guarantees, but also extended its network availability service-level agreement (SLA)...

WatchGuard springs new VPN products.(data security devices and network security software)
May 6, 2002... SEATTLE - WatchGuard Technologies last week is introduced a family of high-performance firewall/VPN appliances that give your network administrators efficient hardware and software platforms for protecting corporate sites ranging in size from...

Cisco fortifies remote branch routers.(Product Announcement)
May 6, 2002... SAN JOSE - Cisco last week released a crop of new routers aimed at boosting bandwidth, security and IP telephony support at enterprise branch offices. Cisco's 3700, the company's newest high-end access router, combines increased...

Ipswitch adds outbound mail filtering to IMail.(IMail Server 7.1)(Product Announcement)
May 6, 2002... LEXINGTON, MASS. - Ipswitch will this week ship a new version of its Windows-based e-mail server software that lets companies scan outbound messages for spam, viruses and inappropriate content. The new features are designed for network managers...

Dorado helps simplify mgmt. of multivendor nets.(Redcell Management Center and VLAN Service Center)(Product Announcement)
May 6, 2002... FOLSOM, CALIF. - Dorado Software is introducing a package that gives service providers the ability to manage individual elements in multivendor networks, in some cases with more precision than the vendors' own software allows, the company says....

No foolin' around.
May 6, 2002... n When the new Hewlett-Packard officially launches Tuesday, it will announce details about which HP and Compaq products will live and which will die. The newly merged HP and Compaq also will trim the number of suppliers it uses for components...

Application service provider USinternetworking has expanded its disaster-recovery offerings through a partnership with SunGard Recovery Services.(Brief Article)
May 6, 2002... Application service provider USinternetworking has expanded its disaster-recovery offerings through a partnership with SunGard Recovery Services. Through the partnership, customers receiving hosted applications from USi also will have access...

SAML gains steam.
May 6, 2002... An XML protocol that appears on its way to becoming a key building block for standards-based security picked up momentum last week as vendors introduced products and vowed to provide free access to their patents to advance the cause. The...

A Zen moment and a cheap thrill.
May 6, 2002... Back in the good ol' days, say 1985 (or 10BI - Before the Internet), you had to go to trade shows to find out what was going on. There simply weren't many other sources of market intelligence. Any of you remember the first NetWorld put on...

Newsman's start-up eyes multimedia nets.(Forrest Sawyer's Sawyer Media)
May 6, 2002... SAN FRANCISCO - MSNBC news anchor and producer Forrest Sawyer saw a problem: Despite recognizing the value of using digital media, businesses were finding the costs associated with creating and managing audio and video content were just too...

Air Force goes on net security offensive; Battlelabs play a key role in fighting the threat of cyberterrorism.
May 6, 2002... WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Air Force is adding firepower to its network defenses by increasing intrusion-detection measures at dozens of bases around the country as the threat of cyberattacks escalates in the post-Sept. 11 age of terrorism....

Safer laptop and PDA connections.(with CryptoCard products)
May 6, 2002... Smart cards and tokens are a safer bet for mobile security. How many PDAs and laptops have you or your coworkers lost? How well do laptop users guard their passwords when at customer sites? How many nightmares does that give the security...

Help Desk.
May 6, 2002... I want to run a particular application program on two subnets, preferably private (e.g., 192.168.xx and 10.x.x.x), yet still have these two nets "talk" to each other. I remember one of my instructors saying years ago that private IPs were not...

Verio enhances VPN,host services.
May 6, 2002... LAS VEGAS - Verio is taking steps beyond its shared hosting roots by rolling out services designed to meet the needs of larger businesses that want features such as enhanced backup and load balancing. It's also announcing an economical IP VPN...

Variety of new switches to support everything from 10G Ethernet to VoIP.(NetWorld+Interop 2002)(Product Announcement)
May 6, 2002... LAS VEGAS - 3Com, Foundry Networks and Hewlett-Packard will use NetWorld+Interop 2002 Las Vegas this week to introduce wares that address resiliency, convergence, management and scalability. With those themes as a backdrop, 3Com will...

How we did it.
May 6, 2002... We installed NetScreen's new security appliances in our test lab network and in our production corporate network at Opus One. In our production network, we used the NetScreen devices primarily in "bridge" (Layer 2) mode. Then we pulled the...

Vendors to address wireless LAN foibles; Management, security to be featured in new products.
May 6, 2002... LAS VEGAS - Vendors this week will attempt to address concerns among wireless LAN users regarding management and security as well as deployment of mixed 802.11b and 802.11a nets. Among the companies announcing new technology will be Network...

Performance mgmt., SNMP packages on tap at N+I.(NetWorld+Interop 2002)
May 6, 2002... LAS VEGAS - Users looking to get more control over their networks and the services they deliver will want to check out network management software and tools from two management vendors on display at NetWorld+Interop 2002 Las Vegas this week....

VENDORS AIM TO HELP USERS SIMPLIFY NETWORK SECURITY.; VENDORS AIM TO HELP USERS SIMPLIFY NETWORK SECURITY.
May 6, 2002... LAS VEGAS - A slew of vendors this week will take the stage at NetWorld+Interop 2002 Las Vegas to highlight new products and services aimed at making networks safer. Vendors are looking to simplify this important task by processing...

Microsoft sketches out mgmt. platform; Company plan short on details, but looks to manage 'services,' not components.
May 6, 2002... More than a year after trumpeting its intent to create a management platform for its family of servers and clients, Microsoft last week unveiled a plan that was long on vision but short on deliverables. The central idea is to move from...

Vendors to speed, secure Web apps.
May 6, 2002... Web acceleration vendors will also take center stage at NetWorld+Interop 2002 Las Vegas to show off the latest products designed to speed up customer Web applications while reducing management headaches for network executives. NetScaler...

HITACHI RAISES THE STORAGE BAR; NEW ARRAYS, STORAGE SOFTWARE COULD CHALLENGE MARKET LEADER EMC.
May 6, 2002... LAS VEGAS - Hitachi Data Systems this week will unveil two high-end storage arrays, plus a handful of management software, that observers say exceed anything EMC offers business customers in terms of capacity, resiliency and performance. ...

NETVMG BOOSTS ROUTE-CONTROL SOFTWARE; COMPANY'S APPLIANCES CAN BE USED TO CHOOSE OPTIMAL INTERNET LINKS.
May 6, 2002... SAN JOSE - NetVmg - until now exclusively a provider of route-control software - this week will announce three appliances designed to streamline the implementation of its technology in corporate networks as a way to cut costs and improve...

The Feature Presentation; SAN switch vendors tout their most useful features.
May 6, 2002... We invited both participants to specify features not tested under any of the other categories that they felt set them apart from their competitors. Brocade offered several, from which we picked the ones that intrigued us the most: ? ISL...

How we did it.(testing network switches)
May 6, 2002... Performance testing was a collaborative effort with Spirent Communications, which provided equipment and personnel for the duration of the review. We used four SmartBits SMB-6000B chassis, fully populated with FBC-3602A 1-Gbps/2-Gbps Fibre...

What is 802.1x?
May 6, 2002... Understanding what the IEEE 802.1x standard is and why you should care means understanding three separate concepts: PPP, EAP and 802.1x itself. Most people are familiar with PPP - Point-to-Point Protocol. PPP is most commonly used for...

What's next for long-haul carriers?
May 6, 2002... The abrupt departure of WorldCom President and CEO Bernie Ebbers last week set off a chain reaction of speculation about what the future holds for the beleaguered long-distance companies. WorldCom, the No. 2 interexchange carrier (IXC) in...

What people are saying.
May 6, 2002... New research crossed my desk this week that sheds some light on three areas of interest: consumers' attitudes about broadband, telework jobs and workplace trends. Dial up desires While the number of broadband households in the U.S....

Network Associates, ISS to gang up on net intruders.
May 6, 2002... Network Associates and Internet Security Systems last week announced an alliance under which they will use each other's technologies and marketing power - an effort spurred by a rise in network security incidents known as "blended threats." ...

The steps to 802.1x authentication.(Brief Article)
May 6, 2002... 1.Wireless client sends authentication request to either wireless access point or 802.1x-enabled switch. We recommend updating your NDIS drivers to make this happen properly. 2. Wireless access point or 802.1x-enabled switch repackages...

IBM, OpenWave announce alliance.
May 6, 2002... IBM and OpenWave Monday announced that they've struck a deal to sell wireless hardware and software for wireless service providers. The 10-year alliance between the Redwood City, Calif., mobile software company and IBM links OpenWave's...

N+I: VeriSign expands managed security services.
May 6, 2002... VeriSign Tuesday will announce an expansion of its managed security services offerings at NetWorld+Interop 2002 Las Vegas, adding a full complement of services, including managed firewall, antivirus, intrusion detection and more. The...