Network World articles from May 2004

Network World archives from May 2004

Howdy, pardner! PBX, WLAN and handset makers step together to choreograph voice-over-wireless solutions.(private branch exchange, wireless local area networks)
May 3, 2004... Byline: SUSAN BREIDENBACH Today's nascent voice-over-Wi-Fi market offers mobility-hungry companies a growing array of pre-standard products, often backed by troika partnerships that the handset, wireless LAN infrastructure and PBX players...

VoWi-Fi calls to users; Early adopters deploy voice over wireless to gain mobility and cost savings.(voice over wireless fidelity)
May 3, 2004... Byline: SUSAN BREIDENBACH Organizations venturing into pre-standard VoWi-Fi waters are being driven by a critical need for real-time voice and data services. The retail, logistics/warehousing, manufacturing and education sectors are among...

NetWorld+Interop Show Planner.
May 3, 2004... As corporate IT executives begin to dust off their checkbooks this year, NetWorld+Interop Las Vegas 2004 is the place to learn about leading-edge technologies, mission-critical applications and emerging security strategies - all designed to...

Keeping IT in the strategic mix.
May 3, 2004... Byline: Gian Zoppo How can you ensure that IT stays in your company's strategic mix? Build a technology team that enables business goals, by partnering with business units to increase revenue and profit. To keep IT as a strategic part of...

letters.(Letter to the Editor)
May 3, 2004... Regarding Mark Gibbs' Backspin column "Offshoring for the right reasons" (www.nwfusion.com, DocFinder: 1828): Marc Andreessen's interview in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution was not about the corporate benefits or pitfalls of outsourcing, but...

When your Exchange server goes down; MS Exchange disaster-recovery wares.(Product/Service Evaluation)
May 3, 2004... Byline: TOM HENDERSON, NETWORK WORLD LAB ALLIANCE E-mail availability is an enterprise business mandate. To that end, we tested four high-availability products for arguably the most popular enterprise e-mail system: Microsoft's Exchange...

Exchange review how we did it.(testing disaster recovery/prevention software)
May 3, 2004... We performed two test cycles per product, one each with Exchange 2000 running on Windows 2000 Advanced Server and one running with Exchange 2003 on Windows 2003 Enterprise Server. We used an Exchange installation of 500 user accounts, an...

The Rodney Dangerfields of telecom.
May 3, 2004... Byline: Daniel Briere Is it just me, or have telecom services gone to hell lately? From my cell phone to landline to cable modem Internet services, it seems that things are breaking more - not just once, but repeatedly. I've considered all...

Mesh networks winning converts.
May 3, 2004... Byline: NETWORK WORLD STAFF Ignoring the crimson tracery of the Golden Gate Bridge soaring into a winter sky, Mickey Griffin and George Lowry peered instead at the screen of a notebook with an 802.11b wireless LAN card. The California...

Resetting the Internet?
May 3, 2004... Byline: Scott Bradner I guess it was too good a story to get right. The press widely reported recently that security geek Paul Watson discovered a previously unknown way to cause catastrophic disruptions of the Internet with only a few...

Too many 'chicken luddles' spoil the soup.(Google's Gmail service)
May 3, 2004... Byline: Dave Kearns L et me add my voice to the small, but vocal, chorus who can't understand why Google's proposed Gmail has raised such a ruckus among those who least understand it. Google, you might remember, proposes giving each...

Vendors to target XML traffic jam.(extensible markup language)
May 3, 2004... Byline: JOHN FONTANA Looking to help customers rein in the growing traffic created by XML and Web services applications, a slew of vendors are developing gigabit-speed silicon that ultimately might be found in equipment throughout...

Calculating costs of WLANs; WLAN switch prices and features are all over the map. Here's help sorting through the offers.(wireless local area networks)
May 3, 2004... Byline: JOHN COX To know if you're getting what you pay for in a wireless LAN switch, you have to know what you want and what the vendor has. As the accompanying chart shows, WLAN switch pricing is quite variable. The products differ...

News briefs.(Information technology services industry)
May 3, 2004... Byline: staff writers Cisco is expected next week to improve its wireless LAN offerings by adding WLAN features to its Catalyst switches. The strategy, dubbed structured wireless-aware network or SWAN, is a response to rivals that are...

Enterprise Applications briefs.(ActiveViews)(Brief Article)
May 3, 2004... Byline: staff writers Microsoft last week said it acquired privately held ActiveViews to improve its business intelligence offerings. ActiveViews developed a query and reporting system that Microsoft plans to add to its SQL Server...

IPoS expands reach of satellite apps.(internet protocol over satellite)
May 3, 2004... Byline: JOHN KENYON Until recently, satellite services were based on proprietary systems - a competitive advantage for providers, but one that made it difficult to create and optimize applications and value-added services for the satellite...

Freeware and shareware help monitor nets; SOFTWARE: Free management tools.
May 3, 2004... Byline: DENISE DUBIE In many cases, the best things in life are free - and when it comes to software applications that can help protect and manage networks, and improve performance - freeware and shareware can be a blessing for network...

Symbol toughens up tri-mode wireless handhelds.(Symbol Technologies Inc. introduces handheld devices)(Brief Article)
May 3, 2004... Byline: JOHN COX Symbol Technologies has introduced two rugged handhelds that can work with three different wireless networks. The latest models in the MC9000 series can be ordered with 802.11b wireless LAN interfaces or short-range...

IPolicy releases multifunction firewall.
May 3, 2004... Byline: ELLEN MESSMER Security vendor iPolicy Networks this week unveiled a multifunction VPN/firewall that can let customers block viruses, spam and Web access either at the Internet perimeter or inside the corporate LAN as a partition....

Convergence: Not hip, still happening.
May 3, 2004... Byline: johna till johnson D efinitions are fun. Melanie Turek, a specialist in collaboration technologies, likes to remind folks that one of Webster's dictionary meanings of collaboration is, "to cooperate with the enemy." (Open...

ask dr. internet.(Brief Article)
May 3, 2004... Byline: steve blass Steve Blass Our production Internet Information Server failed to boot after we installed the MS04-011 patch, so we restored the system to its previous state and it runs again. But now we're worried about the latest...

Opteron servers handle growth of Weather.com.
May 3, 2004... Byline: Jennifer Mears Traffic to Weather.com, the Internet arm of cable television's The Weather Channel, has been snowballing, as the company's management continues to push for more robust and customized services. Those facts are...

Technology pinpoints BGP faults.(border gateway protocol)
May 3, 2004... Byline: JIM DUFFY Start-up Packet Design last week unveiled technology designed to help service providers maintain IP service uptime for their enterprise customers. The company's Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) root-cause analysis...

Siemens launches high-end IP PBX.
May 3, 2004... Byline: PHIL HOCHMUTH Siemens this week is launching a high-end enterprise IP PBX that can host more than 100,000 IP phones from a single data center. The HiPath 8000 IP PBX is targeted at very large companies that want to consolidate...

Infrastructure Short Takes.(Brief Article)
May 3, 2004... n FalconStor launched an iSCSI storage server last week designed for small to midsize businesses, and departments or workgroups within large companies. The iSCSI Storage Server is software that runs on a Windows Storage Server 2003...

B2B acquisitions highlight data quality.(business to business)(Sterling Commerce acquires TR2, data synchronization services provider)
May 3, 2004... Byline: ANN BEDNARZ Three vendors with roots in business-to-business integration have snapped up data synchronization specialists in recent weeks, highlighting the growing importance of data quality in electronic transactions. Global...

SSL appliance on tap from Check Point.(Secure Sockets Layer)
May 3, 2004... Byline: TIM GREENE Check Point is coming out with a Secure Sockets Layer remote-access appliance that screens for malicious code that might compromise corporate resources being accessed by remote users. Called Connectra, the appliance...

Service Providers Short Takes.(Brief Article)
May 3, 2004... n Calient, a maker of photonic switching systems and software, has announced $15 million in new funding. That amount adds to $20 million previously announced in fourth-round funding. New investors Wall Street Technology Partners and DuPont...

IBM expands SMB offerings.(Small and midsize business)
May 3, 2004... Byline: DENISE DUBIE IBM last week added to its Express line of software and services for companies with between 100 and 1,000 employees. The new offerings target remote network management, recovery, and more. IBM in late 2002 launched...

Barracuda takes a bite out of our spam problem.(Product/Service Evaluation)
May 3, 2004... Byline: mark gibbs T wo things have become clear about anti-spam products: First, there is no "best" solution. There are some types of anti-spam solutions that will fit your environment better than others. Which solution will work for...

MCI strengthens security services.
May 3, 2004... Byline: DENISE PAPPALARDO Fresh out of bankruptcy, MCI last week introduced a slew of services that the carrier says show it is getting increasingly serious about security. The offerings, which range from intrusion protection to e-mail...

cool tools.(Electronics Industry Products)
May 3, 2004... Byline: keith shaw Samsung launches multi-purpose monitor Monitors aren't just for displaying the contents of your PC anymore. This was evident in last week's announcement by Samsung for its widescreen 17-inch SyncMaster 173mw. It acts...

Broadband in spotlight.
May 3, 2004... Byline: John Dix It was refreshing to hear President Bush last week emphasize the need to speed the deployment of broadband access, and his methods seem sensible and on target. As part of his speech to the American Association of...

RFID everywhere: From amusement parks to blood supplies; Early adopter 'labeled the devil' for dabbling in wireless.(radio frequency identification)
May 3, 2004... Byline: ANN BEDNARZ Amusement park Legoland in Billund, Denmark, has taken the concept of "lost and found" to a new level. If a child gets lost somewhere between Titania's Palace and Safari Park, a parent quickly can home in on the...

Cisco, IBM team on servers.(Cisco Systems Inc. partnership)
May 3, 2004... Byline: Phil Hochmuth Cisco and IBM announced last week co-developed products that will improve the management and performance of data center servers and network infrastructure equipment, the vendors say. Cisco developed switch...

Archivas saves vital content.
May 3, 2004... Byline: DENI CONNOR NEW YORK - Andres Rodriguez's old employer is known for publishing "All the news that's fit to print." His new company, Archivas, has been formed to handle all the e-mail and other fixed content that's fit to save. ...

DoD issues wireless defense orders.(Department of Defense)
May 3, 2004... Byline: ELLEN MESSMER After two years of internal policy debate, the U.S. Department of Defense last week issued rules that all branches of the military - as well as contractors and visitors - must follow to secure commercial wireless...

Getting rid of scumware. Mostly.(Column)
May 3, 2004... Byline: mark gibbs A few weeks ago I was discussing anomalous error messages and reader Aaron Wayman sent in the following Windows error text: "While validating that COM2 was really a serial port, the contents of the divisor latch...

compendium.
May 3, 2004... Byline: Adam Gaffin Best use of Linux, bar none Bar Monkey is a home bar setup that mixes and pours drinks for you. Check out the component list: Kit 108 relay actuator; Maytag Icemaker valve model # 12001415; FloJet N5000-140...

CEO Dunn's done, but what of Nortel?(Northern Telecom Ltd.)
May 3, 2004... Byline: JIM DUFFY AND PHIL HOCHMUTH Nortel customers should stay put until the dust settles after last week's ouster of CEO Frank Dunn, users and analysts say. Nortel as a company is not going away, observers say. The company is merely...

IBM powers up server partitioning; Big Blue adapts virtualization of servers, storage across all its enterprise products.
May 3, 2004... Byline: JENNIFER MEARS For years, mainframe users have been able to securely partition systems into multiple virtual servers that could share resources and be securely and effectively managed with a single tool. Now IBM wants to spread...

VoIP veterans swap stories and share advice.(Voice over Internet Protocol )
May 3, 2004... Byline: PHIL HOCHMUTH BOSTON - Corporate IT professionals from small companies to the largest Fortune 500 firms convened last week at the Enterprise Networks 2004 conference in Boston to swap stories and advice on how to make VoIP work...

Product palooza at N+I.(Networld Inc., Interop)
May 3, 2004... Byline: PHIL HOCHMUTH, TIM GREENE AND DENISE DUBIE A rebounding NetWorld+Interop will showcase a bevy of new switching, security and management wares two weeks from now in Las Vegas, but it will be the show's swan song at the Las Vegas...

Legoland uses RFID for finding lost kids.(LEGOLAND California Inc., radio frequency identification)
May 3, 2004... Byline: ANN BEDNARZ Parents worried about losing a kid at Legoland in Carlsbad, Calif., can stop by guest services for a "lost parents" sticker. If a sticker-wearing child gets lost in the park, someone helpful can call the parent's cell...

Is a unified WLAN approach better than an overlay? Two industry insiders debate whether Wi-Fi should be deployed as an extension of the wired LAN.
May 10, 2004... Byline: Yes, by Vipin Jain Before embracing a particular wireless LAN architecture, buyers should consider the burdens the WLAN will place on the enterprise network, including security and management needs. The best way to stay ahead of...

Wireless networks are completely different from their wired brethren and should be treated as such.
May 10, 2004... Byline: No, by Keerti Melkote Wireless networks are completely different from their wired brethren and should be treated as such. Merely adding wireless as a feature to existing wired networks quickly turns into a security and management...

Cisco's MDS 9509; Director SAN switch gets top ratings in management and feature columns.
May 10, 2004... Byline: Randall Birdsall and Edwin Mier Cisco's MDS 9509 Director SAN switch gets top ratings in management and feature columns n By Randall Birdsall and Edwin Mier, Network World Lab Alliance isco's done it again. Packed with...

Keys to IP contact center success.
May 10, 2004... Byline: Lori Bocklund Keys to IP contact center success 1. Understand the business drivers. IP in the contact center is a business decision, not a technology decision. Don't lose sight of that. 2. Conduct a network assessment, and...

How we did it.
May 10, 2004... How we did it Spirent Communications provided all the performance testing equipment we used. We employed five SmartBits SMB-6000B chassis, fully populated with FBC-3602A 1G and 2G-bit/sec Fibre Channel modules. Spirent's SmartFabric test...

VoIP breaks down the walls of the call center; IP-based systems allow companies to route calls to home workers and satellite offices.
May 10, 2004... Byline: Lori Bocklund VoIP breaks down the walls of the call center IP-based systems allow companies to route calls to home workers and satellite offices. By Lori Bocklund Baxter Credit Union took a bold approach to upgrading...

Promises, promises.
May 10, 2004... Byline: Lori Bocklund Sidebar: Promises, promises Some of the early predictions about the benefits of IP contact centers haven't been realized. l Standards-based systems were one early driver, creating expectations of choice,...

SIP aces basic interop tests.
May 10, 2004... Byline: Joel Snyder SIP aces basic interop tests Joel Snyder, Network World Lab Alliance We didn't just take a sip. We took a good long drink of SIP technology in this round of iLabs testing. We gathered more than 50 devices...

Dialing for VoIP dollars.
May 10, 2004... Byline: Joel Snyder Dialing for VoIP dollars By Joel Snyder, Network World Lab Alliance All telephony networks require a dial plan that describes what happens when you dial which numbers. In the U.S., for example, we participate...

SIP terms.
May 10, 2004... SIP Terms SIP, the Session Initiation Protocol, is a control protocol for multimedia sessions. Although most SIP software and hardware is designed for the simple case of VoIP telephony, SIP is actually a generic protocol that can be used...

Vendors hit the 802.1X mark for access, but security holes remain.
May 10, 2004... Byline: Rodney Thayer Vendors hit the 802.1X mark for access, but security holes remain RODNEY THAYER, Network World Lab Alliance While previous iLabs security-based testing focused strictly on how the IEEE 802.1X authentication...

Is it time to got shopping for 802.1X?
May 10, 2004... Byline: Rodney Thayer Is it time to go shopping for 802.1X? There are some 802.1X products that might be ready for your enterprise deployment. To help ascertain which products they might be, Network World Lab Alliance and iLabs team...

Team mixes MPLS and IPv6 for enterprising results.
May 10, 2004... Byline: Jim Duffy Team mixes MPLS and IPv6 for enterprising results The iLabs Advanced Internetworking Initiative team in collaboration with Isocore Internetworking Lab this week will deploy a live, Multi-protocol Label Switching...

Testers drill down on SIP, 802.1X security and MPLS; An exclusive preview of the cutting-edge interoperability testing that will be showcased this week at NetWorld+Interop.
May 10, 2004... Byline: Joel Snyder Testers drill down on SIP, 802.1X security and MPLS An exclusive preview of the cutting-edge interoperability testing that will be showcased this week at NetWorld+Interop. Early last month, in a drafty warehouse...

Security: Are we on overload?
May 10, 2004... Byline: Sandra Gittlen When Network World Lab Alliance member and Opus One senior partner Joel Snyder and I began discussing ideas for this year's security technology tour, which kicks off next week in Boston, we kept coming back to the...

The dawn of a wireless century.
May 10, 2004... Byline: Frank Dzubeck In this first decade of the 21st century, the communications industry is at an interesting transition point. The 20th century could be called The Wireline Century, with millions of kilometers of copper wire, cable and...

Letters.
May 10, 2004... Blocking is best In Mark Gibbs' Backspin column "Wrapping up the messaging and spam tour" (www.nwfusion.com, DocFinder: 1926), he asks readers how they plan to defend their companies from spam. My company uses plain and simple blocking,...

Channel woes dog Microsoft.
May 10, 2004... Byline: JORIS EVERS AND STACY COWLEY Hiccups in Microsoft's efforts to work with its channel partners continue to hurt the software vendor's sales in the business applications market it is trying to crack. When the company announced...

Negotiation know-how; Minimize risk by delegating the job to a skilled professional and establishing processes and procedures.
May 10, 2004... Byline: Nancy Markle Negotiation know-how Minimize risk by delegating the job to a skilled professional and establishing processes and procedures. By Nancy Markle In my experience working as a CIO for several big corporations,...

Network Physics NP-2000 appliance; Collects useful network-performance stats, but user interface is sluggish.
May 10, 2004... Byline: Barry Nance Network Physics NP-2000 appliance Collects useful network-performance stats, but user interface is sluggish n By Barry Nance, Network World LAB ALLIANCE Fantasy league sports enthusiasts use player and...

Network Physics how we did it.
May 10, 2004... Byline: Barry Nance We installed the NP-2000 machine on our lab's six-segment Fast Ethernet network. Each segment consists of a server and 25 clients, all connected to the Internet via T-1 and frame relay lines. To access the NP-2000's...

ISCSI use booms, early adopters swoon.
May 10, 2004... Byline: DENI CONNOR NEW YORK - IP storage-area networks got a boost at the Storage Decisions show in New York recently as ardent users said that deploying iSCSI was love at first sight. Early adopters made it clear that they weren't...

Telecom boards: Wake up!
May 10, 2004... Byline: Johna Till Johnson I t's not news that many telcos were grossly mismanaged during the last decade. Unfortunately, it seems that many telecom corporate boards still don't get it when it comes to running companies in this...

Enterprise Applications Short Takes.
May 10, 2004... n Microsoft has released a plug-in for Lotus Notes to let its Office Live Meeting 2003 users schedule meetings with IBM's e-mail client. The plug-in works with Notes Versions 5.x and 6.x installed on a PC running Windows 2000 or XP with Service...

Lessons from the e-voting mess.
May 10, 2004... Byline: Scott Bradner A pril 30 was not a good day for vendors of electronic voting systems. Nor was May 3. There might be quite a few such bad days ahead for companies that sell gussied-up PCs intended to replace older voting...

Then there was one - WAN/LAN combo arrives.
May 10, 2004... Byline: kevin tolly W hile every enterprise branch office requires LAN and WAN features, an inspection of the communications closet almost always reveals that separate boxes are implemented for each. Adtran is trying to change that....

AutoProf targets server, desktop mgmt.
May 10, 2004... Byline: JOHN FONTANA Desktop management vendor AutoProf this week is scheduled to release software that will let users streamline the centralized management and configuration of servers and desktops. With Policy Maker Professional,...

Infrastructure Short Takes.
May 10, 2004... n Red Hat last week unveiled a version of the Linux operating system software for corporate desktops. The software, called Red Hat Desktop, will be a companion product to Red Hat's current desktop offering, Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS. Red Hat...

News briefs.
May 10, 2004... Byline: staff writers Two key improvements for the security and performance quality of Wi-Fi devices are scheduled to reach wireless network users this year. The Wi-Fi Alliance says it will certify products for the new 802.11i and 802.11e...

Managed Objects helps track services.
May 10, 2004... Byline: DENISE DUBIE Managed Objects this week is expected to unveil software that will let customers track internal service-level agreement compliance based on network, system and application performance data. Business Service Level...

New access services meet SOHO needs.
May 10, 2004... Byline: TONI KISTNER Since Citrix Systems validated GoToMyPC by buying ExpertCity earlier this year, a new crop of small service providers are standing a lot taller. Three companies - Positive Networks, RemotelyAnywhere and ByteTaxi -...

Start-up looks to solve WLAN RF problems.
May 10, 2004... Byline: John Dix Some early wireless LAN users say their largest source of headaches is radio frequency problems, everything from interference to playing with radio locations to optimize performance. Start-up Propagate Networks hopes to...

Cool Tools.
May 10, 2004... Byline: Keith Shaw The scoop: Zire 72 from palmOne, about $300. What it does: One of two new PDAs from palmOne (the other is the low-end Zire 31), the Zire 72 is an upgrade of last year's Zire 71, one of the first Palm PDAs to include...

Net.worker briefs.
May 10, 2004... Byline: staff writers Intellon and Comcast Cable jointly announced a market trial of Intellon's HomePlug technology. HomePlug 1.0 technology transmits data at 14M bit/sec over residential power lines. Comcast plans to use HomePlug for...

Ask Dr. Internet.
May 10, 2004... Byline: Steve Blass Steve Blass Is there an easy way to add WYSIWYG editing controls such as boldface, italics and spell-check to HTML Web page text-entry forms? HTMLArea, available at www.nwfusion.com, DocFinder: 1931, is a free...

IBM ups the ante on Power servers; TECHNOLOGY: A look at Big Blue's Power5 chip.
May 10, 2004... Byline: ANN BEDNARZ IBM has been busy readying the next generation of its high-end Power microprocessor, and while it takes a different design approach than previous generations, the goal is the same: enabling bigger, faster servers that...

Broadcom also simplifies WLAN security setup.
May 10, 2004... Byline: Toni Kistner For a little while there, Buffalo Technology was a superhero. It was the only wireless LAN maker to acknowledge that selling boxes with disabled security wasn't just ethically suspect but stupid business, and the only...

New gear to deliver Ethernet access; Adva offerings designed to make Ethernet services more accessible to campus networks.
May 10, 2004... Byline: JIM DUFFY Adva Optical Networking this week will unveil a product that could result in Ethernet access services becoming more readily available to business customers seeking more bandwidth at campus networks. The company's FSP...

Extreme changes.
May 10, 2004... Byline: Phil Hochmuth Extreme Networks has changed a lot in a year. Since last spring, the vendor has launched a wireless product line, debuted its next-generation 10G bit/sec switch (the BlackDiamond 10K), and revamped its core switch...

RouteScience gear now listens to applications.
May 10, 2004... Byline: TIM GREENE RouteScience Technologies last week announced upgrades to its route-optimization software that the company says will better help customers pick the best Internet connection when there is more than one to choose from. ...