Network World articles from October 2007

Network World archives from October 2007

AT&T acquires Interwise for $121 million; Deal will let AT&T enter market for IP video, Web conferencing.(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... Byline: Brad Reed In an effort to expand its IP business services, AT&T has agreed to pay $121 million to acquire Interwise, which specializes in Web conferencing. Steve Sobolevitch, the vice president of AT&T Business...

Microsoft debuts online enterprise services; Exchange, SharePoint, Communications Server available in hosted model; file storage and sharing beta available free to test on Web.
October 1, 2007... Byline: John Fontana Microsoft on Monday pulled out of incubation its online enterprise services around Exchange, SharePoint and Communications Server and introduced a free document storage and collaboration Web site that begins to...

Nortel names new CFO; Latest of many Nortel management changes over past year.(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... Byline: Jim Duffy Nortel this week named a new CFO to replace Peter Currie, who resigned in April. Pavi Binning has been named executive vice president and CFO after a five-month search. Binning's appointment is effective Nov....

How we did it.(access point testing)
October 1, 2007... dAll throughput and interoperability tests, both homogeneous (client and router from the same company) and heterogeneous (all combinations of all clients and routers), were performed using the same configuration. The basic test...

Readers weigh in on management companies to watch; * Some companies to watch suggested by industry watchers.
October 1, 2007... Byline: Denise Dubie For many readers, Network World's series of stories on "companies to watch" seems to miss here and there when it comes to recognizing innovative vendors that address real issues in enterprise networks. The...

Screaming MIMO; Blazing performance of 802.11n SOHO gear bodes well for enterprise MIMO.
October 1, 2007... New 802.11n Draft 2 products targeted at the small-office/home-office market show a dramatic improvement in interoperability and a slight improvement in throughput over the Draft 1 products we tested last summer. Throughput results...

How safe is a VPN?(Virtual private networks)
October 1, 2007... Byline: Ron Nutter I see a lot on the Internet about VPNs but very little explanation about what they are. A lot of hype about using them to gain privacy while connected through a public access point. Yet, I've not seen somebody talk...

360Hubs: A better portal, er, 'Affinity Hub'; * Portals are back and they've gained depth.
October 1, 2007... Byline: Mark Gibbs Remember when portals were all the rage? Dozens of vendors had portal solutions but for all their flash these products weren't that slick mostly because they were too simple. They did little to encapsulate and...

What's next for 802.11n?(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... One of the more controversial elements of Draft 2 of the 802.11n standard is whether one should purchase products based on it today. Analysts are split on this issue. Those recommending against note that the standard is not finished,...

Inexpensive telepresence for the masses; * Digital Presence from Telanetix.(Telanetix Digital Presence)(Product/service evaluation)
October 1, 2007... Byline: Linda Musthaler A few weeks ago, I wrote about large-scale telepresence systems that allow people to meet face-to-face, virtually. These systems, from companies like HP and Cisco, employ dedicated networks to send huge amounts...

Patches from Apple, Ubuntu and more; * Storm: the largest botnet in the world?* Number of malicious e-mails bearing bad links balloons tenfold.(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... Byline: Jason Meserve Today's bug patches and security alerts: Apple Ships iPhone Security Updates Apple today issued a software update to plug at least 10 security holes in the iPhone, including at least seven fixes for ...

13 free tools ease IT management; Freeware, open source applications tackle configuration, NetFlow, patch, storage, security and systems management.
October 1, 2007... Byline: Denise Dubie Finding the perfect tool to relieve a pain point or fill a gap can be invaluable to network managers. When the tool is free? Even better. Freeware applications can be a simple utility such as Ping or a more...

Walled gardens to come a-tumblin' down? * Chinks appear in traditional U.S. cellular model.
October 1, 2007... Byline: Joanie Wexler The traditional U.S. cellular business model has long elevated mobile network operators to the status of the country's exclusive cell-phone sales channel. However, that model is starting to crack. ...

NSF funds "mind-reading" technology; Could enable computers to tell how frustrated/bored you are with this article.(National Science Foundation)(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... The National Science Foundation is funding research that could enable computers to respond to your levels of frustration or boredom. In other words, we're talking about "mind-reading" technology. Tufts University researchers are...

Linux-based Exchange replacement on tap; PostPath rolls out client options, mobile support, management tools add depth to Exchange replica.
October 1, 2007... Byline: John Fontana Messaging vendor PostPath Monday added a variety of client options and upgraded the mobile support in its Linux-based replica of Microsoft Exchange server. The company released version 3.0 of PostPath Server...

Top 14 VoIP vulnerabilities; The new book "Securing VoIP Networks," the vulnerable side of VoIP.
October 1, 2007... Byline: Ellen Messmer How are VoIP networks weak and vulnerable to attack and catastrophic failure? Securing VoIP Networks, the new book by Peter Thermos and Ari Takanen, looks at VoIP infrastructure and analyzes its vulnerabilities...

Identity shows galore; * So many venues for identity talk.
October 1, 2007... Byline: Dave Kearns Another Digital ID World has come and gone (this was the sixth annual event) and while much was familiar there was a different feel to the event. It was as if you were visiting old friends but in their new house....

Vonage loses two patent cases in one week; * But there is a glimmer of hope for Vonage.
October 1, 2007... Byline: Steve Taylor, Larry Hettick Vonage was hit twice last week with bad news from its ongoing legal battles. On Tuesday a jury found that Vonage was guilty of infringing on patents owned by Sprint-Nextel. The jury awarded...

EBay Desktop application in public beta; Alerts, new bid features make buying easier.
October 1, 2007... Byline: Jon Brodkin EBay Monday is releasing a free desktop application that makes it easier for buyers to keep track of items and submit bids.The application, named eBay Desktop, features many types of alerts that take some of the...

Service that broadcasts video from military drone aircraft goes commercial; SkyMarshall service from Marshall Communications uses broadband satellite links.
October 2, 2007... Byline: Tim Greene Satellite provider Marshall Communications' secure service that distributes video gathered by military drone planes is available to commercial customers interested in deploying disaster recovery or first-responder...

Goodbye DPCs, hello (simple) groupware.(deferred procedure calls )(Column)
October 2, 2007... Byline: Mark Gibbs I have a theory: Microsoft is trying to drive me insane. You may recollect that last week I was flummoxed (ohhh, good word and one that I have never managed to use in a column before) by the appearance of a...

Control vs. usability: What's DRM's future? University of Minnesota researcher sums up digital rights management.(digital rights management)
October 2, 2007... Byline: Scott Bradner Digital rights management is a chimera that content owners use to pretend their content is not digital. As a technology, DRM has had an almost unblemished record of failure and as a business model the record has...

One company's experience with downtime; * A story of e-mail system downtime.(Brief article)
October 2, 2007... Byline: Michael Osterman A member of our survey panel sent me information on his company's experience with e-mail system downtime. Here is a lightly paraphrased version of what he sent me: "I just looked through my calendar to see...

ExaGrid, ProStor, OnStor, Emulex upgrade storage gear; * Storage Decisions announcements.
October 2, 2007... Byline: Deni Connor At Storage Decisions last week, ExaGrid, ProStor Systems, OnStor and Emulex unveiled enhancements to their products. ExaGrid announced that its disk-based backup product now provides twice the backup and restore...

3Com adds three IP PBXs for small businesses; New models come from in-house development and a partnership with Digium.
October 2, 2007... Byline: Tim Greene 3Com is broadening its IP PBX offerings with the introduction of three new products geared for businesses with as few as five phones. The company is shipping two versions of its VCX Connect devices. The 100...

Vontu upgrades data-loss prevention software; Discovers sensitive information stored on PCs, laptops.
October 2, 2007... Byline: Cara Garretson Vontu on Monday announced an upgrade to its data-loss prevention software that features agent-based discovery of sensitive data stored at a company's endpoints, and also prevents unauthorized copying of that...

ITIL having hard time living up to hype; Best-practice framework not as critical to success as adopters once thought, survey shows.(Information Technology Infrastructure Library)
October 2, 2007... Byline: Denise Dubie Many IT organizations working to improve IT service delivery and management processes depend on the best practices laid out in ITIL, but the framework isn't always seen as the panacea adopters expected. BT INS...

ISP liability and 'Net neutrality: an update; * The Verizon Wireless-NARAL case.(National Abortion Rights Action League)
October 2, 2007... Byline: M. E. Kabay In May 2006, I published two articles in this newsletter on the subject of ISP liability for the content distributed or published via their facilities (here and here). I reviewed the classic cases of Cubby vs....

Branch integration; * Cisco will move the market toward all-in-one branch solutions.
October 2, 2007... Byline: Robin Gareiss Cisco is making it a whole lot easier to run a consistent infrastructure at the branch offices with new products that integrate multiple functions into a single physical device. I've written about the...

Activity monitoring and database security.
October 2, 2007... Over 158 million personal data records have been exposed since February 2005. There is no question that databases are under attack. No longer satisfied with defacing Web sites or committing other malicious acts, today's attackers are...

D-Link switches support IPv6; * Gigabit Ethernet switches include support for IPv6.(Brief article)
October 2, 2007... Byline: Jeff Caruso D-Link recently shipped two stackable Layer 3 Gigabit Ethernet switches that support IPv6 routing and 10 Gigabit Ethernet connections. The two switches are the newest members of D-Link's xStack 3600 line. The...

Digium buys Switchvox; Creator of the open source Asterisk PBX buys a developer of the platform.
October 2, 2007... Byline: Tim Greene Digium, whose open source Asterisk IP PBX spawned a host of start-ups that commercialize the software, has bought up one of them because it has a better user interface than Digium's. Digium has bought Switchvox...

CompTIA is 'Creating Futures'; * CompTIA aims to retrain people for IT jobs.(Brief article)
October 2, 2007... Byline: Amy Schurr Many experts predict an impending IT worker shortage. CompTIA aims to do something about that with its program to train disabled, transitioning military, at-risk youth and dislocated workers for jobs in the IT...

AT&T clarifies vague service-termination rule; Despite speculation, AT&T says it does not have a policy of cutting off service for customers who use it to criticize the company.(Brief article)
October 2, 2007... Byline: Brad Reed Relax, AT&T subscribers: The company says it won't cut off your Internet service if you criticize it. In response to speculation on various Web sites about the meaning of a clause in AT&T's latest terms-of-service...

NAC deployment obstacles; * The top obstacles to deploying NAC.(network access control)(Brief article)
October 2, 2007... Byline: Tim Greene The top obstacles to deploying NAC are the political and operational issues, according to a poll of attendees at a recent Gartner Security Summit. According to the poll 35% had concerns about upsetting the wrong...

Tabbed interface framework masters CDs, DVDs with HTML.(Brief article)
October 2, 2007... Byline: Steve Blass We need to build a tabbed interface framework for mastering CDs and DVDs containing HTML content. The content does not require server interaction but may contain video and/or animated presentation material. We have...

Ig Nobel: Honoring weird science at Harvard; Wacky awards are less prestigious, more fun than the real Nobels.
October 2, 2007... Byline: Jon Brodkin Skip the Grammys. The Oscars are boring. It's time to talk about the only award in the history of the Earth that has been presented both to ducks that practice homosexual necrophilia and Dan Quayle. 2007 Ig...

Infinite capacity, Facebook, iPhones and DRM-free music; This is the world that Amazon.com CTO Werner Vogels inhabits. He discussed this and more with attendees of his Network World chat.(Discussion)
October 2, 2007... Byline: Network World Staff Werner_Vogels: Good morning or afternoon depending on where you're located. Thanks for joining. I'm looking forward to answering as many of your questions as possible in the next hour. Peter K: Where do...

Sun combines servers, storage businesses; Unification will promote integrated systems.
October 2, 2007... Byline: Robert Mullins Sun Microsystems is combining its servers and storage businesses to better sell computing systems to data center customers. The announcement was made Monday on the blog of Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz, in which he...

Community, personal communications, and civility; * Moderation in all things - including corporate policies.
October 2, 2007... Byline: Steve Taylor, Jim Metzler In the last newsletter, we explored the impact on productivity due to the use of corporate network resources for personal communications. In particular, we set forth a supposition that it is not at...

Bandwidth management gets personal; * Propel Software unveils Personal Bandwidth Manager at DEMOfall07 conference.
October 2, 2007... Byline: Ann Bednarz There's a cool new product in the works that lets PC users control how they use bandwidth and allocate greater capacity to time-sensitive operations such as IP phone calls, video and online games. Called Propel...

Telcos spar over service pricing; Critics say granting forbearance petitions would hurt competition.
October 2, 2007... Byline: Brad Reed Representatives from both local and national telecom companies fought over the future of telecom service pricing during a House Energy Subcommittee hearing Tuesday. The companies' arguments stemmed from the FCC's...

Blended threats targeted by Avinti's latest e-mail software; Plug-in works with gateway products to block links to malicious sites.(Brief article)
October 2, 2007... Byline: Cara Garretson Avinti on Tuesday announced the beta release of an e-mail gateway plug-in designed to stop malware hidden inside spam. Called NEWT, for Neutralize E-mail-Web Threats, the software is designed to block URLs and IP...

IBM puts forms in its Web 2.0 stable.(IBM Lotus Forms 3.0)
October 2, 2007... Byline: John Fontana IBM Tuesday added another chapter to its Web 2.0 story by releasing the latest version of its electronic forms technology as a server-based component that works with its portal technology and Notes. IBM Lotus...

Femtocell enables carriers to offer FMC alternatives; * Sprint launches Airave for unlimited calling at home.(fixed-mobile convergence)
October 3, 2007... Byline: Steve Taylor, Larry Hettick Sprint earlier this month announced a service that lets users make and receive unlimited calls at home using any Sprint mobile phone. The service called Airave, is being trialed in selected areas of...

AT&T signs network management deal with IBM; AT&T will take over IBM's outsourced telecom, network management services from IBM Global Services.(Brief article)
October 3, 2007... Byline: Brad Reed AT&T announced yesterday that it signed an agreement with IBM to serve as the company's provider of outsourced telecommunications and network management services -- an assignment previously handled by IBM's own...

Juniper names new enterprise chief; Mark Bauhaus will be responsible for Juniper's security, application acceleration, unified access control and enterprise routing product lines.(Brief article)
October 3, 2007... Byline: Jim Duffy Juniper Networks this week named Mark Bauhaus executive vice president and general manager of its enterprise-focused Service Layer Technology group. Bauhaus replaces Rob Sturgeon, who left Juniper in March by...

Cisco announces fast-track membership to IET; * Cisco collaborates with the IET to encourage engineers to broaden their skills - but is it worthwhile for U.S. IT folks?
October 3, 2007... Byline: Linda Leung In a move to encourage Cisco certified individuals to broaden their skills and to get access to a range of engineering educational and training materials, Cisco has teamed up with the Institute of Engineering and...

Site seeing; * Some really interesting Web sites worth checking out.(Global Incident Map and Internet Public Library)
October 3, 2007... Byline: Mark Gibbs In this issue of the Network World Web Applications newsletter I have a couple of really interesting Web sites for your delectation. The first is an academic project called The Internet Public Library. IPL is "a...

BlackBerry enters the Wi-Fi game.
October 3, 2007... Byline: Keith Shaw The scoop: BlackBerry 8820, by Research In Motion with AT&T Wireless service, about $300 (after rebates and two-year contract, plus additional monthly voice and data service). What it is: The BlackBerry finally...

Appliance designed to protect remote offices; Arkeia device boasts 1TB virtual tape library.(Brief article)
October 3, 2007... Byline: Deni Connor Arkeia Wednesday rolled out a data protection appliance for organizations with remote offices that need backing up. The EdgeFort 300 attaches to the network via Gigabit Ethernet and includes backup software, as well...

Wireless sensors dump batteries in favor of "energy harvesting"; Start-up GreenPeak offers low power wireless mesh linked to novel energy sources.
October 3, 2007... Byline: John Cox Wireless sensor start-up GreenPeak promises you'll never have to change a battery again. For networks that can grow to include hundreds of thousands of radio-powered sensors, that's a big deal. The company's line...

The emergence of identity access management governance; * IAM governance includes identity audit and role management.
October 3, 2007... Byline: Dave Kearns I've been known to lump together Aveksa, SailPoint and Securent under the banners of "entitlements" or "governance" but all three, it seems, are adamant that - far from being competitors - they are actually...

Freeware: Here, there and everywhere; * Freeware can ease the strain on IT management budgets.
October 3, 2007... Byline: Denise Dubie With the complexity of networks and applications growing, IT managers don't get a break in terms of the number of things they have to manage -- which represents a huge strain on budgets. And that's where freeware...

E-mail security, compliance upgraded in Google Apps; Postini acquisition pays off with new features.
October 3, 2007... Byline: Jon Brodkin Google's acquisition of e-mail security vendor Postini is paying off for Google Apps enterprise users, who today are gaining free access to extra security and compliance features. The Google Apps Premier Edition...

Is it truly necessary to upgrade to IPv6? Cornering the market on address spaces.
October 3, 2007... Byline: Johna Till Johnson In economics, someone who hoards resources to drive up the price is rather whimsically referred to as a troll. I was reminded of that recently when one of my colleagues suggested that perhaps the U.S....

PricewaterhouseCoopers' spin-off tackles governance, risk and compliance; Brabeion Software uses policy and audit content developed at PricewaterhouseCoopers' to help customers stay compliant.
October 3, 2007... Byline: Denise Dubie PricewaterhouseCoopers' spin-off Brabeion Software this week upgraded its compliance management platform to provide customers with more than 6,000 control tests on ISO and other standards.Brabeion, founded in 2005,...

Mail service turns to wireless e-mail to improve operations; Postal Service to issue thousands of BlackBerry handsets to managers.(Brief article)
October 3, 2007... Byline: John Cox To improve its mail operations, the U.S. Postal Service is turning to... wireless e-mail. USPS this year will distribute BlackBerry handsets to 5,400 managers and "key staff" nationwide, running on AT&T's cellular...

The promise and pitfalls of WiMAX; * WiMAX finally enters sphere of reality.
October 3, 2007... Byline: Joanie Wexler In the early days, I faithfully attended the WiMAX World conference. Then, admittedly, I quit going for several years. As an advocate for enterprise IT departments, I wasn't finding pre-standard discussions among...

Stratavia adds predictive analysis to IT automation platform; Data center automation vendor updates its flagship software with predictive analysis to speed problem resolution.(Brief article)
October 3, 2007... Byline: Denise Dubie Data center automation software maker Stratavia this week announced it had upgraded its flagship product to be able to make decisions based on past actions and further lessen the amount of manual intervention...

RenewData rolls out e-discovery service; Service evaluates the content of backup tapes to determine if storage is required.(RenewData Backup Tape Liability Management Service )(Brief article)
October 3, 2007... Byline: Deni Connor RenewData, a vendor of e-discovery and data migration services, today launched a new service designed to help customers address liability issues associated with the content of backup tapes as well as limit the cost...

SAP partners with IBM, Sun on identity management; New Web services aid regulatory compliance.(Brief article)
October 3, 2007... Byline: Jon Brodkin SAP is teaming up with IBM and Sun to combine identity management software with tools that ensure proper segregation of duties, a necessary part of regulatory compliance. SAP built about a dozen new Web...

Don't buy into WiMAX hype, group says; GSM Association says WiMAX technology not yet mature; sees HSPA as viable alternative.
October 3, 2007... Byline: Brad Reed The GSM Association says that businesses and investors who found themselves dazzled by the recent WiMAX World convention shouldn't buy into the hype just yet. The reason, it says, is because WiMAX is still in its...

Eliminating backup tapes can save big bucks; * Backup Tape Elimination Service from RenewData.(Brief article)
October 4, 2007... Byline: Michael Osterman Most of us are aware of the problem of managing an e-discovery effort using nothing but backup tapes. The process of finding all relevant tapes, extracting their content, indexing it and then putting it into a...

ForeScout software scans network endpoints inside and out; * ForeScout's Secure Connector.(Brief article)
October 4, 2007... Byline: Tim Greene ForeScout, which previously scanned network endpoints externally, is introducing client software that checks out machines as they try to join networks. Secure Connector is a dissolvable agent that is downloaded...

FANs get enhanced; Ellison-backed Pillar Data adds data de-duplication; * Announcements by Attune, Abrevity, Pillar Data.(file-area networks)(Brief article)
October 4, 2007... Byline: Deni Connor Information management vendors Attune Systems and Abrevity last week announced enhancements to their file-area networking management products. Meanwhile, Larry Ellison-backed Pillar Data added de-duplication of data...

Level 3 cuts its rates for content delivery; Will offer CDN services at same level it offers high-speed Internet.
October 4, 2007... Byline: Brad Reed In a bid to attract new customers for its content-delivery network services, Level 3 announced today that it will be offering CDN services at the same rate that it charges for its high-speed Internet service. ...

Raptor uses DWDM to bind switches together; * Raptor switches act as one over DWDM network.(Raptor Networks Technology)(Brief article)
October 4, 2007... Byline: Jeff Caruso Raptor Networks Technology is demonstrating a cluster of its Ethernet switches operating as a single device over a DWDM network. Raptor Networks is a small company that focuses on Gigabit Ethernet and 10...

Beware the single vendor as trusted advisor: Gartner.(Brief article)
October 4, 2007... Byline: Jim Duffy Next week, Gartner is expected to present its rationale for adopting a multivendor strategy for enterprise networking.\ At Gartner's Symposium/ITxpo conference in Orlando, distinguished analyst Mark Fabbi will review...

Modifying Software-as-a-Service; * Latest Small Business Technology column* Latest SMB News Notes.
October 4, 2007... Byline: James E. Gaskin News stories appear every day, but how can you tell which stories will affect your technology decisions? The new format of this newsletter aims to help, James Gaskin will regularly comment on news stories from a...

The top 10 reasons Web sites get hacked; Web developers ignore security flaws at customers' peril.
October 4, 2007... Byline: Jon Brodkin Web security is at the top of customers' minds after many well-publicized personal data breaches, but the people who actually build Web applications aren't paying much attention to security, experts say. ...

Free plug-in encrypts content, authenticates users; Kryptiva aims to ease e-mail encryption.(Brief article)
October 4, 2007... Byline: Cara Garretson Kryptiva this week announced an encryption product designed to secure e-mail communications from the sender's desktop to the recipient's in-box. Called Email Encryption Architecture and available as a free...

The oldest trick in the malware book; * Online videos may be conduits for viruses* Patches from Apple, Mandriva, rPath, others* Web's 'dark corners' are everywhere, and other interesting reading.
October 4, 2007... Byline: Jason Meserve Today's malware news: Lewd celebrity photos mask Trojan payload Angelina Jolie and Halle Berry were unwilling vectors of a massive spam campaign last month, in which naked pictures of the two actresses...

Wireless VoIP works, but it's work; Whole different animal than data-only WLANs, early adopters say.
October 4, 2007... Byline: John Cox A trio of healthcare organizations say that large-scale wireless VoIP deployments work. But it takes work, and lots of it. For years, wireless LAN vendors have touted voice calls over an 802.11 wireless net as a...

Science stumbles on with Ig Nobel awards; Satirical awards for research on bed bugs, sword swallowing and the 'Gay bomb'.
October 4, 2007... Byline: Robert Mullins Research into the mystery of wrinkles on bed sheets, the bottomless bowl of soup and the effect of Viagra on hamster jet lag dominated the awards Thursday night at the annual Ig Nobel awards at Harvard...

Planning for crisis; * Will your business continuity plans hold up in the event of a disaster?
October 4, 2007... Byline: Ann Bednarz Early last week a pair of finance industry organizations kicked off a pandemic flu exercise that runs though Oct. 12. The purpose of the exercise is threefold: to help financial firms understand the potential risks...

Relationship between the network and apps development teams not bad but not great; * The organizational dynamics between the networking and apps development groups.
October 4, 2007... Byline: Steve Taylor, Jim Metzler In recent newsletters we have described some of the dynamics that exist between the network organization and other components of the IT function (see the links below). Today, we'll look at trends in...

Symantec seeking product management umbrella; Plans detailed for company engineers gathered at Cutting Edge conference.
October 4, 2007... Byline: Ellen Messmer Orlando -- Symantec is looking to bring its storage, backup, security protection, configuration and patch-management tools under a common management umbrella that will lead to better IT policy and compliance...

Modifying Software-as-a-Service; * HyperOffice helps customers become resellers.
October 4, 2007... Byline: James E. Gaskin One of the complaints about Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), at least from large companies, is the inability for a customer to modify the software. Enterprises often buy applications based on a database, such as...

Two schools say Cisco switches don't make the grade; N.C. university reports problems with Cisco's Clean Access NAC.
October 4, 2007... Byline: Jim Duffy Cisco's dominance in enterprise networking doesn't necessarily mean it is the only game in town -- or that you jeopardize job security by bypassing Cisco. Indeed, the old adage goes, no one ever got fired for...

Why passwords are passe; * Passwords are a lousy way to authenticate.
October 4, 2007... Byline: M. E. Kabay I have long argued that passwords are a terrible way of authenticating identity. Here's why: * Many well-meaning but unaware people choose really stupid, easy-to-guess passwords such as the names of people...

Some vendor blogs could use polish.
October 5, 2007... Byline: Jon Brodkin CA security blogger Ken Williams analyzes the latest spam threats and explains why he turned off user access control in Windows Vista (it slowed down performance). Definitely interesting, but CA loses points because...

Some vendor blogs leave much to be desired.(Foundry and Microsoft's blogs)
October 5, 2007... Byline: Jon Brodkin Foundry This one's so bad we're reluctant to even call it a blog. But that's what Foundry calls this collection of press releases, white papers and product data sheets. It's riddled with broken links and hasn't...

The best and worst vendor blogs; Sun shines, IBM lets loose, Microsoft disappoints, Apple is a no-show.
October 5, 2007... Byline: Jon Brodkin Web logs provide a new avenue for network vendors to communicate with their customers. After all, blogs are immediate, informal, personal and interactive, and they can be fun and intellectually stimulating at the...