Network World articles from October 2003

Network World archives from October 2003

Planning for chaos; Learning to expect the unexpected helps bring order to project management.
October 6, 2003... Byline: CHUCK YOKE The project appeared to have all the ingredients for success. Implementing a consolidated campus network would generate a 30% reduction in monthly telecom bills. Capital costs were less than $500,000, senior management...

Fighting back against telecom surcharges; Understanding the distinction between regulatory charges and the extras carriers pass along is a powerful weapon when negotiating contracts.
October 6, 2003... Byline: David Rohde and Stephen Shea David Rohde and Stephen Shea Running a corporate telecom shop often feels like playing the Whack-a-Mole machine at a carnival - you keep pounding down the moles but they keep popping back up. That's...

Letters to the editor.(Letter to the Editor)
October 6, 2003... Byline: Readers Source verification assumption Regarding Mark Gibbs' Backspin column "Running the numbers on source verification" (www.nw"fusion.com, DocFinder: 7924): One problem with source verification is that it assumes the people...

WAN monitoring tools; Visual UpTime edges Concord's eHealth in test of six software packages.
October 6, 2003... Byline: barry nance WAN MONITORING Tools Visual UpTime edges Concord's eHealth in test of six software packages BY BARRY NANCE, NETWORK WORLD GLOBAL TEST ALLIANCE Your company's transactions, queries, documents, intranet data...

How we did it.(how we tested a complex wide are network)
October 6, 2003... Byline: barry nance How we did it Our test environment had three T-1 links, three frame relay links and a 384K bit/sec symmetric DSL link. The T-1 and frame relay links consisted of pairs of back-to-back DSU/CSUs and Cisco 3500...

Wireless technology puts users in place.
October 6, 2003... Byline: PRADEEP IYER As companies roll out wireless networks, one area of concern is how to automatically segment wireless users into the correct virtual LANs already established on the wired side. VLAN membership on wired networks...

HP should stay in the PC business.
October 6, 2003... Byline: Linda Musthaler Eighteen months after the largest merger ever in the technology industry, some analysts have grown impatient waiting to see if HP will reign supreme in the PC market. The thought is, if HP can't compete against...

Federated ID gains momentum.(federated identity)
October 6, 2003... Byline: Daniel Blum Gone are the days when Midwestern manufacturing companies had to roll their own XML security to achieve single sign-on across Webbed supply chains. A spate of product announcements from vendors such as IBM, Oblix and...

Is the GPL good for the software industry? A free software advocate and a SCO Group exec debate the merits of the GPL.(General Public License)
October 6, 2003... Byline: Yes, by Bradley Kuhn The GNU General Public License has a positive effect on the software industry. Vibrant software sharing defended by the legal protections of GPL inspires growth and advancement, just as publishing and sharing...

Is the GPL good for the software industry? A free software advocate and a SCO Group exec debate the merits of the GPL.
October 6, 2003... Byline: No, by Chris Sontag The General Public License is not good for the software industry for a variety of reasons. These include: * The GPL is full of contradictions and could be interpreted in a number of different ways. At the...

Fortifying BGP: No quick fix.(Border Gateway Protocol)
October 6, 2003... Byline: JIM DUFFY In 1996 the U.S. government tapped BBN to develop a more secure version of the primary protocol used to route information around the Internet. The effort was not in response to any particular data or network security...

Blow-by-blow coverage.(watching motor racing on the Internet)
October 6, 2003... Byline: Scott Bradner I'm a motor racing fan. Well, at least a fan of some types of motor racing. Dirt track, Figure 8 and the IRL do not do that much for me. But Formula 1, CART, Le Mans style endurance, Isle of Man TT and NASCAR racing...

The art of the cliche.(comment on the Computer and Communications Industry Association report)
October 6, 2003... Byline: Dave Kearns T he Computer & Communications Industry Association recently spent a fair amount of time and money encouraging seven high-profile security gurus to create a 25-page report that boils down to "don't put all your...

ID mgmt. fuels roles, rules growth.(identity management and Roles Based Access Control)
October 6, 2003... Byline: JOHN FONTANA In these days of distributed networks, user management is not for the faint of heart, and that is increasing interest in two techniques for streamlining the process. Roles and rules are two approaches that promise...

Enterprise Applications briefs.(Neoteris Inc., Teros Inc.)(Brief Article)
October 6, 2003... Byline: staff writers Neoteris last week improved its software access-management controls and released a host of new features to secure content accessed via a browser. With Version 3.3 of its Instant Virtual Extranet platform, Neoteris has...

Tips for designing a resilient WAN.
October 6, 2003... Byline: Johna Till Johnson IT executives think a lot about disaster recovery these days. And that's a good thing. As companies continue to consolidate resources - data centers, facilities, networks - the need for redundancy becomes...

Adding business smarts to service desk savvy; MANAGEMENT: Trouble-ticketing update.(service desk software overview)
October 6, 2003... Byline: DENISE DUBIE When John Bandy decided to replace Foremost Farms' homegrown, document-based help desk software with new, more automated features in HP's OpenView Service Desk software, he got a pleasant surprise: a $60,000 savings in...

Infrastructure Short Takes.(Candera Inc.; IBM)(Brief Article)
October 6, 2003... Candera last week announced a clustered storage controller that joins multiple heterogeneous storage-area networks into a single SAN with a common management interface. The SCE 510 Cluster includes two hardware nodes configured in an...

HP to launch high-end net barrage; Desktop Gigabit, 10 Gigabit and 802.11g WLAN gear on tap.
October 6, 2003... Byline: PHIL HOCHMUTH HP this week will launch a barrage of high-speed wired and wireless network gear for corporate customers, aimed at delivering Gigabit and secure Wi-Fi links to desktops and 10 Gigabit links in the core. On tap...

Service Providers briefs.(Verizon Wireless Inc.; NaviSite Inc.; ADC Telecommunications Inc. and Colubris Networks Inc.)(Brief Article)
October 6, 2003... Byline: staff Verizon Wireless last week launched a commercial data service in Washington, D.C., and San Diego that usually will deliver several times the speed of a dial-up connection. The services will offer average rates of 300K to 500K...

News briefs.(meshed briefs)
October 6, 2003... Byline: staff writers A California lawyer is trying to organize a class-action lawsuit against Microsoft, saying the company is engaging in unfair business practices in violation of state law because it has failed to secure its software...

AppIQ boosts storage apps mgmt.(storage application management software)
October 6, 2003... Byline: DENI CONNOR AppIQ last week announced a new version of its storage application management software that makes it easier for administrators to monitor, manage and report on server and storage hardware and applications. Renamed...

net buzz.(managing business records; Segway recall )
October 6, 2003... Byline: Paul McNamara They say there's a will Executives from Iron Mountain dropped by to tout the findings of a commissioned survey that quizzed some 100 IT executives about managing business records in a world where government...

Excel Switching cuts the wires; Programmable switch takes on mobile network duty.
October 6, 2003... Byline: JIM DUFFY Excel Switching, a maker of programmable call control and media processing switches, is going wireless. The company is adding support for wireless protocols to its Converged Services Platform (CSP) switch. This...

Dynamic DNS zeroes in on IP addresses.
October 6, 2003... Byline: mark gibbs O ur sister-in-law Lydia runs a preschool and wanted to have a wireless Webcam so parents could see their little darlings. But first there was the problem of her DSL connection. One of the more annoying issues with...

AT&T expands Ethernet MAN offering; Carrier turns to new strategy of provisioning on demand rather than building everywhere.(Ethernet Switched Service Metropolitan Area Network)
October 6, 2003... Byline: DENISE PAPPALARDO A new metropolitan Ethernet service that AT&T launched last week lets users go beyond point-to-point LAN connectivity. The carrier's Ethernet Switched Service Metropolitan Area Network lets customers connect...

Hughes expands high-speed Internet offer.(Hughes Network Systems Inc. announced Direcway DW6000 terminal )(Brief Article)
October 6, 2003... Byline: DENISE PAPPALARDO Hughes Network Systems last week announced an enhanced version of its satellite Internet access service. HNS says its Direcway DW6000 terminal would let users support multiple PCs or Macintosh computers in a...

Ask Dr. Internet.(Internet Storm Center)(Brief Article)
October 6, 2003... Steve Blass What is the Internet Storm Center? How can we contribute firewall logs to its network security monitoring process? The Internet Storm Center grew out of the SANS Institute's Consensus Incident Database project, which began...

Brightmail's anti-fraud services target spoofers.(Anti-Spam Enterprise 5.1)
October 6, 2003... Byline: CARA GARRETSON Catering to corporate customers who want more than just junk-mail protection from their anti-spam vendor, Brightmail last week announced a new anti-fraud service and the addition of Symantec's anti-virus software to...

Palm, Sony launch new handhelds.
October 6, 2003... Byline: keith shaw P alm and Sony each launched new PDAs last week, with features such as a landscape display option, faster processors and additional memory. Palm's new handhelds include two models in the Tungsten line (the...

Alternatives address BGP problems, but do they add their own?(Border Gateway Protocol)
October 6, 2003... Byline: Jim Duffy The two proposals for addressing Border Gateway Protocol's security shortcomings might have some of their own. BBN's Secure BGP (S-BGP) is intended to address a "fundamental problem" with BGP: the authenticity of...

Sun fights back with innovation.(Sun Microsystems Inc. Sun Java Enterprise System)
October 6, 2003... Byline: John Dix Sun's announcement last week that it will post a larger-than-expected loss in its fiscal first quarter is the latest evidence that Sun is trying to exorcise demons. With increasingly powerful Intel-powered boxes...

Collaboration technology: Just a lot of noise?(comment on John Gallant's editorial)
October 6, 2003... Byline: mark gibbs In a recent editorial our esteemed editorial director, John Gallant, discussed the problems of collaboration technologies and observed that "Technology is developing faster than our skills to deal with it. We're always...

EDial using IM as hub to integrate voice, data.(Instant Collaboration System (ICS) integrates instant messaging with telephony, Web conferencing and Web-based document sharing)
October 6, 2003... Byline: JOHN FONTANA Real-time collaboration is all about integrating various communication tools, and vendor eDial this week will release a server that ties together voice and data using instant messaging as its hub. EDial's Instant...

Polycom unit boasts better video compression.
October 6, 2003... Byline: JASON MESERVE Polycom this week will introduce its first videoconferencing appliance that supports a new video compression standard, which is said to cut in half the bandwidth required to provide the same quality video as the...

Users banking on blades.(blade servers becomming popular)
October 6, 2003... Byline: JENNIFER MEARS AND DENISE DUBIE Greater Baltimore Medical Center had a dilemma. Its IT needs were growing, but its data center space was not. After months of dead-end negotiations with vendors in an attempt to put multiple...

Radar net flattens Earth for weathermen.
October 6, 2003... Byline: ANN BEDNARZ Web services, Linux and grid computing are among the technologies researchers are using to develop a system of predicting and improving warning times for weather emergencies such as tornadoes and flash floods. Last...

Easing global domain name use.(formation of the IDN Software Consortium)
October 6, 2003... Byline: CAROLYN DUFFY MARSAN The biggest barrier to widespread corporate use of internationalized domain names is the lack of support in key applications such as Web browsers and e-mail clients. So VeriSign, the central registry for domain...

IBM to roll out next phase of ID management.(identity management platform)
October 6, 2003... Byline: JOHN FONTANA IBM this week is scheduled to unveil upgrades to its identity management platform that more tightly integrate its suite of products and provide users with more automated controls of business workflow and applications....

Five tips for securing a converged net.
October 6, 2003... Byline: PHIL HOCHMUTH AND TIM GREENE IP telephony and voice over IP are by no means the standard for carrying enterprise voice just yet. But these technologies have been in the real world long enough for users to have learned some tricks...

Security debate rages; Intrusion-detection critics and backers still sparring months after Gartner salvo.
October 6, 2003... Byline: ELLEN MESSMER Strong aftershocks continue from the Gartner report that declared intrusion-detection systems dead and predicted the market for such products would be gone by 2005. While the debate sparked by Gartner's assessment...

Start-up talks up voice for WLANs.(Meru Networks Inc. introduces voice over wireless)
October 6, 2003... Byline: JOHN COX Stop thinking about wireless LANs for data and start thinking about them for wireless voice. That's the pitch from the latest WLAN start-up, Meru Networks, which this week is shipping an access point and controller...

VeriSign suspends controversial service.(SiteFinder)
October 6, 2003... Byline: JORIS EVERS Having stood firm for weeks under a barrage of criticism, VeriSign last Friday agreed to suspend its controversial SiteFinder service after the Internet's primary governing body issued an ultimatum that it do so or face...

10 Gigabit ready to set up enterprise shop; INFRASTRUCTURE: High-speed LANs.(Industry Overview)
October 13, 2003... Byline: PHIL HOCHMUTH Most corporate users are not yet clamoring for 10G Ethernet, but the technology is evolving from the concept phase to production customer trials and deployments in some cases. Falling prices and the proliferation...

Terminating a systems administrator; when it's time for an IT employee to go, eliminate all the ways that person can access your network.
October 13, 2003... Byline: Frederick Howell and David Lawson Terminating a systems administrator When it's time for an IT employee to go, eliminate all the ways that person can access your network. Perhaps one of the most challenging situations in an...

Session controllers join H.323 and SIP.(Product/Service Evaluation)
October 13, 2003... Byline: SRIDHAR RAMACHANDRAN Deployment of voice-over-IP endpoints, such as Session Initiation Protocol phones and H.323 IP PBXs, within corporations has presented IT with new interoperability challenges. A new breed of network equipment...

IDS finds niche as analytical tools.(Evaluates network intrusion detection systems from companies such as CISCO, ISS, NFR, Barbedwire, Intrusion )(Product/Service Evaluation)
October 13, 2003... Byline: Joel Snyder, David Newman and Rodney Thayer IDS find niche as analytical tools By Joel Snyder, David Newman and Rodney Thayer, Network World Global Test Alliance Network intrusion detection systems can be highly useful...

False positives remain a major problem; But IDSs are getting better at managing large volumes of alerts.(Product/Service Evaluation)(Industry Overview)
October 13, 2003... Byline: JOEL SNYDER Last year, our IDS review concluded that false alarms would drown any network manager who tried to use these devices. The level of alerts managed to drown the devices: Several couldn't handle the load of our modest test...

IDS review how we did it.(network intrusion-detection systems put to the test)
October 13, 2003... Byline: Joel Snyder How we did it Our real-world test put network intrusion-detection systems through the wringer at three locations. Our goal was to mix elements of a multi-site enterprise network with the inherent randomness of the...

Equipped to play; Vendors submit varying levels of hardware, software to meet test objectives.(evaluation of several network security hardware and software solutions and systems)(Product/Service Evaluation)
October 13, 2003... Byline: Joel Snyder, David Newman and Rodney Thayer Equipped to play Vendors submit varying levels of hardware, software to meet test objectives. We laid out our network requirements for our 60-day test of network...

What network IDSs can - and can't - do.(evaluation of Network intrusion-detection systems and their capabilities)
October 13, 2003... Byline: Joel Snyder, David Newman and Rodney Thayer What network IDSs can - and can't - do Network intrusion-detection systems as a product class have been under attack recently, fueled by a series of recent Gartner reports, one of...

Where's the Snort representative? A call for help to open source integrators.(evaluation of open source security software Snort )(Product/Service Evaluation)
October 13, 2003... Byline: Joel Snyder Where's the Snort representative? A call for help to open-source integrators. By Joel Snyder Long-time intrusion-detection system watchers will inevitably want to know: what about Snort? The popular open...

Serving SMBs is not so simple.(Small and medium sized businesses require specialized IT services and sales)
October 13, 2003... Byline: Jeff Kaplan With large companies drastically cutting back their IT spending, many IT vendors and service providers have shifted their attention to small and midsize businesses. While it might be relatively straightforward for...

Hey telco, where's my support?(telephone companies have lots of work to do supporting customers)
October 13, 2003... Byline: Daniel Briere There's nothing more annoying than having a telephone company customer support issue. Any time I have to call to report a problem, I hate the experience before it starts. Interestingly, I don't feel this way about...

Letters to the editor.(Letter to the Editor)
October 13, 2003... Byline: readers Spam in the wild Your test of anti-spam tools (www.nwfusion.com, DocFinder: 8025) states: "Estimates of the amount of unwanted e-mail range from 40% to 75%, but we can give you an exact percentage - 69%. That's how...

YAIPVC (yet another IP-enabled video camera).(evaluation of the Linksys WVC11B wireless-B internet camera)(Product/Service Evaluation)
October 13, 2003... Byline: mark gibbs L ast week we discussed the D-Link DCS-1000W Air 2.4-GHz wireless network Internet camera (www.nwfusion.com, DocFinder: 8026), a terrific wireless Webcam system priced at around $300. And hot on its heels we...

GE motors along with e-learning software.
October 13, 2003... Byline: CAROLYN DUFFY MARSAN General Electric has selected Plateau Systems for one of the largest-ever corporate installations of e-learning management software. The deal signals a trend toward enterprisewide adoption of Web-based training...

When is an abomination a service?(Sarah Here is a short announcement promoting your SolutionStops at the upcoming Information Highways. We encourage you to distribute this through your various clients/target lists and other communication vehicles throughout the GTA. It's in everybody's best interest if the SolutionStops and Showcase have lots of traffic and by working together our individual marketing efforts will just be that much stronger. We are sending a second communication blast to our databases Monday morning. Of course you can edit this as you wish, this is just my suggestion. Virginia Roy Managing Director Information Highways conference *************************** Suggested Subject Line : Hummingbird invites you! - Complimentary workshops/lunch Hummingbird cordially invites you to attend our SolutionStop workshops at the upcoming Information Highways Conference. Enjoy complimentary light lunch, visit the Hummingbird exhibit in the Showcase and participate in one or more of these dynamic workshops: Put an end to correspondence overload Both public and private sector organizations need to manage the volume and content of correspondence received as part of normal business. Timely and accurate responses, ensuring inquiries get to the right internal expert and generating appropriate replies is critical to good customer communication. This session will highlight the components of Hummingbird EnterpriseO, which lend themselves to an easy-to-deploy, user-friendly solution to the correspondence overload. Information management, the path to compliance The business climate has changed dramatically over the last few years. Organizations are being pushed by legislation and principles of good corporate governance to take an Enterprise level approach to information and knowledge management. This session will provide an overview of several of the key issues affecting information management in both private and public sectors. Understand how organizations can leverage Hummingbird EnterpriseO to ease the burden of compliance and achieve improved internal productivity and better customer service. From creation to administration: integrated contract management solutions Hummingbird's Contract Management solution, built on the Hummingbird EnterpriseO, is a comprehensive solution to address Contract Creation, Negotiation and Administration for buy and sell side contracts. The Contract Management solution includes full Document and Records Management, Collaboration, Reporting and the ability to integrate with an organization's ERP systems. Tuesday March 23 and Wednesday March 24, 2004 12:00 noon - 2pm and 3:30 -4pm Holiday Inn King Street, Toronto SolutionStop Theatre 2004 Information Highways Conference & Showcase- www.econtentinstitute.org/conference Our presentations are some of the many complimentary SolutionStop workshops being held at the upcoming 2004 Information Highways Conference. To review the full SolutionStop timetable go to www.econtentinstitu
October 13, 2003... Byline: Scott Bradner U nder almost universal condemnation from the Internet technical community and with the immediate prospect of Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers filing suit, VeriSign on Oct. 4 undid the change...

Ethernet on the high seas.(evaluation of the current status and future direction of ethernet infrastructure aboard boats. )
October 13, 2003... Byline: Kevin Tolly I f all goes well, as you read this I'll be incommunicado on a sailboat somewhere between Virginia and the Bahamas - a brief and rare respite from IT. While that is what it should be, it certainly won't. Oceangoing...

Infrastructure briefs.(Brief Article)
October 13, 2003... Byline: staff HP last week announced a program aimed at luring Sun's Solaris operating system users to HP machines running Linux. The bait? $25,000 in porting and migration services. Under the new program, Sun's customers in the Americas...

Microsoft SBS 2003 suits small offices.(Product/Service Evaluation)
October 13, 2003... Byline: JAMES GASKIN The old saying, "third time's a charm" definitely applies to Microsoft's Small Business Server 2003. Released last week, SBS 2003 is a polished and well-designed product that will satisfy the needs of small offices...

short takes.(Brief Article)
October 13, 2003... n North American service providers will spend $48.9 billion on capital expenditures this year, a 21% reduction from 2002, according to Infonetics Research. However, service providers will increase their revenue by about 1%, bringing their...

What a surprise! Novell rethinks itself.(Company Profile)
October 13, 2003... Wow. The SCO Group just announced it is dropping the suit against IBM and refunding the money it took in the Linux license blackmail scheme. And it apologized for being so annoying and said Darl McBride would be driven out of town on a rail...

Law and Order: Telecommunications Unit.
October 13, 2003... Byline: Johna Till Johnson My recent column on the music industry's attempts to strong-arm telephone companies into monitoring their customers sparked a lot of feedback, virtually all positive (including comments from artists and...

Net.Worker Short Takes.(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
October 13, 2003... The number of full-time telecommuters has doubled since 2000, according to a new Meta Group report, "Teleworkers: An Emerging Minority." Add to this teleworkers who spend more than half their time working outside the office, and the numbers...

Internap acquires Sockeye, netVmg; Service will cater to sites served by multiple ISPs.
October 13, 2003... Byline: TIM GREENE Internap is buying two makers of Internet route-optimization appliances in an effort to extend its service-level agreements to cover network performance from customer site to customer site, not just within Internap's...

Ballmer pledges security push . . . again.(Industry Overview)
October 13, 2003... Calling Microsoft's most-recent software security crisis a defining moment, CEO Steve Ballmer last week reiterated the company's vow to fix what is broken. Ballmer repeated promises to improve patching tools, including a single site to download...

Hitachi enhances storage connectivity.(Product/Service Evaluation)
October 13, 2003... Byline: DENI CONNOR Hitachi Data Systems last week introduced new data protection software and a variety of storage enhancements aimed at making it easier for users to manage, scale, protect and retain their storage resources. The new...

ask dr. internet.(Brief Article)
October 13, 2003... Steve Blass Our online workstation-inventory form records information about workstations when we make desktop service calls. We want to automate the form submission so technicians can update the inventory with a button-click. We want to...

ILECs answer VoIP phone threats.(Incumbent long-distance carriers)(voice-over internet protocol)(Industry Overview)
October 13, 2003... Byline: DENISE PAPPALARDO Incumbent long-distance carriers insist they are not sitting idle as fledgling voice-over-IP service providers skim voice minutes - and revenue - from their networks. Skype is only the latest broadband...

Year One: Force10 faces challenges.(Company Profile)(Product/Service Evaluation)
October 13, 2003... Byline: PHIL HOCHMUTH After arriving with a splash in the high-end switch market in September 2002, Force10 Networks continues to gain customers and praise from high-end users. But some observers say that, with its rivals catching up in...

Siebel courts small, midsize firms.(Product/Service Evaluation)
October 13, 2003... Byline: ANN BEDNARZ CRM market leader Siebel Systems hasn't forgotten the little people. It's new mantra, "CRM for everyone," is intended to reflect an easier, more affordable Siebel - a theme that was pervaded at the software maker's user...

Enterprise Applications.(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
October 13, 2003... Byline: staff Microsoft has been awarded a patent for a feature in instant messaging that alerts a user when the person they are communicating with is inputting a message. The feature is present in instant-messaging services from Yahoo and...

cool tools.(Product/Service Evaluation)
October 13, 2003... Byline: keith shaw New Sharp notebook includes auto-backup Sharp Systems of America last week launched a notebook geared to small and midsize business users that includes automatic synchronization and back-up capabilities. The...

Carriers go bonkers over bundling.(Industry Overview)
October 13, 2003... Byline: Jeff Caruso You know those service bundles that service providers offer to small businesses and individuals? To hear top carrier executives tell it, bundling is the hottest thing since touch-tone. It not only helps bring in new...

IBM execs see changing focus on security with rise of WLANs.(wireless LANs)
October 13, 2003... Byline: Ellen Messmer I n a briefing in New York last week, IBM executives offered their perspectives on what they say are distinct changes in security focus at corporations and government brought on by events such as the Sept. 11...

Microsoft SMS 2003 ready to go, monitoring.
October 13, 2003... Byline: JOHN FONTANA Microsoft next month is scheduled to release the first of two management tools slated to play a prominent role in the company's strategy to develop a platform-wide infrastructure for managing Windows. The final...

Start-ups push storage with a twist.(object-oriented storage)
October 13, 2003... Byline: DENI CONNOR A handful of storage start-ups are developing software that will let users guarantee the integrity, authenticity and rapid accessibility of large amounts of data at a fraction of the cost of traditional storage arrays....

Nortel taps SMB installed base with VoIP; IP-enabled Norstar, new IP PBXs are on tap.(small business phone systems)
October 13, 2003... Byline: PHIL HOCHMUTH Nortel last week unveiled several new products and upgrades aimed at letting smaller companies more easily add and support voice-over-IP and convergence applications. Nortel announced a gateway for IP-enabling its...

BEA tackles application security.(BEA Systems Inc. WebLogic Enterprise Security)
October 13, 2003... Byline: ANN BEDNARZ BEA Systems this week is expected to unveil software for securing applications and managing user access across heterogeneous legacy, Web and application platforms. WebLogic Enterprise Security (WLES) addresses a...

IBM puts Domino users on path to WebSphere.
October 13, 2003... Byline: JOHN FONTANA After years of rumors, Lotus' Domino platform now is going to be melded with IBM's next-generation WebSphere collaboration and messaging platform. Company officials said last week that the parallel development tracks...

Alcatel's IP PBX upgrade includes cell phone support, VLAN management.(Brief Article)
October 13, 2003... Byline: PHIL HOCHMUTH Alcatel this week is scheduled to unveil several features of its IP PBX for large corporations that will tie cell phones to corporate IP telephony systems. Software upgrades to the OmniPCX Enterprise will let cell...

AT&T touts tool to map IP traffic.
October 13, 2003... Byline: CAROLYN DUFFY MARSAN Researchers at AT&T Labs have applied leading-edge statistical techniques to create what they say are the first real-time traffic reports for IP networks. This breakthrough is the final piece of a six-year...

They won't take his money.(Microsoft refuses service)
October 13, 2003... Byline: Paul McNamara They won't take his money Who can afford to turn away paying customers in this economy? Apparently Microsoft can, at least according to the protagonist of today's head-scratcher of a tale. Two years ago,...