Network World articles from September 2006

Network World archives from September 2006

Infrequently Asked Questions: memory, RPM recovery, monitoring; Most of my memory is gone, my hard drive just became half-sized, and now the RPM command won't answer my queries. Can anyone at linuxquestions.org help?
September 1, 2006... When people migrate to Linux, one of the first things they notice is that the amount of free RAM seems to be significantly lower than they've been accustomed to seeing. "What's happening with my RAM?" they will frequently ask. Using my...

Teams embrace all-inclusive SOA; Building a service-oriented architecture requires input from all areas of IT.
September 1, 2006... Byline: Ann Bednarz It take all kinds to build a service-oriented architecture - all kinds of IT people, that is. Application developers, data architects, security specialists and IT directors all have a stake in the design of...

SOA testing tools facilitate collaboration.(service-oriented architecture)
September 1, 2006... Byline: Ann Bednarz Expertise isn't the only thing that distinguishes the players involved in creating a service-oriented architecture. Location, too, is a factor. The teams working on application services increasingly are...

Q&A: Wi-Fi Alliance exec defends about-face.
September 1, 2006... Byline: John Cox On Aug. 29, the Wi-Fi Alliance unexpectedly announced it would reverse is oft-repeated decision to do no interoperability testing of 100+Mbps wireless LAN gear until final, formal ratification of the 802.11n standard....

Q&A: ISS founder on IBM and beyond.
September 1, 2006... Byline: Ellen Messmer Internet Security Systems (ISS) last week entered an agreement to be acquired by IBM for $1.3 billion in cash, a deal expected to close by the end of the year. Network World Senior Editor Ellen Messmer recently...

Opinion: Phishers get fancy with Lamborghini e-mail scam.
September 1, 2006... Byline: Cara Garretson Gee, I thought you were supposed to give something made of iron or wood on your sixth wedding anniversary, not a Lamborghini. As I was shopping online last night for a gift for my husband, I received an e-mail...

Quantum cryptography demo is a security first; Researchers demonstrate combination of quantum data encryption, quantum key distribution.(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... Byline: Network World Staff Northwestern University researchers have joined forces with BBN Technologies to demonstrate what they are calling the first truly quantum cryptographic data network. The university has combined its...

AT&T gets into the municipal Wi-Fi game.(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... Byline: Network World Staff AT&T this week won its first municipal Wi-Fi deal. The service provider has changed its stance and is now all for becoming a supplier of free, ad-sponsored fixed wireless service on municipal networks. ...

GAO report critical of federal banks' security.(Government Accountability Office)
September 1, 2006... Byline: Ellen Messmer The Government Accountability Office (GAO) in Washington, D.C., Thursday issued an information security report critical of the Federal Reserve banks' computer systems and networks that are used in selling Treasury...

BMC users tout business service management technologies; BMC touts benefits of managing IT infrastructure for the sake of better application and service delivery.(BMC Software Inc.)
September 4, 2006... Byline: Denise Dubie SAN FRANCISCO-Corporate IT executives that in the past few years adopted a service-centric approach to infrastructure management report the change delivered cost savings, streamlined operations and in some cases...

AutoMate, er, automates.(Network Automation launched AutoMate 6.0 Professional Edition)
September 4, 2006... Byline: Mark Gibbs To keep you in that state of wild exhilaration after last week's foray into prebuilt virtual machines, this week we have a tool that could make your life easier, a prospect that may induce something akin to ecstasy....

Cablevision: A neutral net that's not.
September 4, 2006... Byline: Kevin Tolly It is difficult to make it through a day without hearing or reading something about net neutrality. Congress has been debating the issue and, more recently, the Federal Trade Commission has created an Internet...

Analysts have their doubts about new carrier architecture; IMS: it may not just be a question of when, but if.
September 4, 2006... Byline: Denise Pappalardo Washington, D.C. - IP Multimedia Systems is not a slam-dunk according to a group of industry analysts that gathered at the FierceMarkets IMS executive Summit conference in Washington D.C.aon Wednesday to...

Google tools aim at corporate desktop.(Google Apps for Your Domain )
September 4, 2006... Byline: John Fontana Google last week released in beta a bundle of online communications tools that corporate users can customize for their domains. They include e-mail, instant messaging and calendars. Google Apps for Your Domain...

Trapeze bolsters WLAN software security.(Trapeze Networks, wireless LANs)
September 4, 2006... Byline: John Cox Trapeze Networks has released a new version of its wireless LAN software that it says improves customer security by linking with a third-party wireless intrusion detection/prevention system application. Version...

From Russia, with luck.(global business partners network security concerns)
September 4, 2006... Byline: Winn Schwartau Your global business partners may not have the same network security concerns you have - if they have any at all. On a recent 10-day sojourn in Eastern Europe, I learned a great deal about that region's take on...

Chocolate phone is yummy to use.(LG Chocolate VX8500)(Product/service evaluation)
September 4, 2006... Byline: Keith Shaw The scoop: The LG Chocolate phone (model VX8500), by LG with Verizon Wireless service, about $150 (after $50 rebate and two-year agreement). What it is: A heavily hyped mobile phone, the Chocolate has many...

LANDesk users cite product benefits.
September 4, 2006... Byline: John Dix While you would expect a handpicked customer panel at a vendor user group meeting to favor the vendor's product, it was interesting to hear the breadth of benefits cited by LANDesk customers at the company's...

Quest tool aims to tame SharePoint.
September 4, 2006... Byline: John Fontana Quest Software next week will release management tools to help corporate users bring order to their Microsoft SharePoint rollouts. Quest Site Administrator for SharePoint lets users discover all the SharePoint...

I for information or imperious?(information technology services industry)
September 4, 2006... Byline: Mark Gibbs "It makes men imperious to sit a horse; no man governs his fellows so well as from this living throne."- Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., Elsie Venner What if we substitute IT for men, network for horse, provides...

How we tested OpenSUSE 10.1.
September 4, 2006... We tested OpenSUSE 10.1 on a gigabit network with notebooks (Toshiba Satellite with AMD CPU, HP with 64bit CPU, Apple PowerBook G4), desktops (Compaq Presario SR1020NX, others), and on several server platforms (HP DL140 3GHz Xeon 32-bit...

Banks under gun to bolster online security; Federal guidance pushes industry to find safer ways to protect transactions.
September 4, 2006... Byline: Ellen Messmer Banks are scrambling to meet a year-end deadline set by federal regulators to better secure online transactions. The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) didn't dictate specific technologies...

Running Windows on a Mac without Boot Camp.(Brief article)
September 4, 2006... Byline: Steve Blass Try Parallels Desktop. A 15-day trial version is available after you register on the Web site. After you install the software, use the virtual machine configuration editor to add your CD/DVD drive and a virtual hard...

A closer look at OpenSUSE 10.1; Novell's attempt to keep Linux available to open source community.(Product/service evaluation)
September 4, 2006... OpenSUSE 10.1, Novell's attempt to keep a general-purpose version of its Linux freely available to the open source community, is both aided by and suffers from the lack of attention from Novell. In our tests of OpenSUSE, we found...

Microsoft expands support program; Software giant revises 2-year-old Custom Support Agreement.
September 4, 2006... Byline: John Fontana Companies looking to hold onto support for aging Microsoft software as they plan migrations will now have access to a safety net - but it comes at a price. Microsoft this week made its first revisions to the...

As telecom goes, so go its fancy buildings; So much for Global Crossing's digital neural net.
September 4, 2006... Byline: Carolyn Duffy Marsan COLUMBUS, Ind. - One block off the main drag of this all-American town is an architectural gem that is among the landmark buildings built in the bygone glory days of the telecom industry. Known as the...

Privacyware going corporate; Host-based intrusion-detection software gains management platform.(Privatefirewall 5.0)
September 4, 2006... Byline: Tim Greene Privacyware next month is scheduled to unveil a management platform for its personal firewall that will make the desktop- and laptop-based software suitable for deployment in corporate networks. Called Endpoint...

SML improves management automation.(service modeling language)
September 4, 2006... On July 31, 10 IT vendors published the Service Modeling Language specification to improve the automation of management systems. SML provides a consistent way to describe system information about networks, applications, servers and other IT...

A giant step for enterprise wireless LANs.
September 4, 2006... Byline: Ira Brodsky Compelling new voice-over-wireless-LAN products signal big changes in enterprise telecommunications. The desk phone could go the way of the phone once bolted to your kitchen wall. Companies can reduce telephone tag...

Grids moving into enterprise data centers.
September 4, 2006... Byline: Jennifer Mears Mention the word "grid" and most IT executives probably think of thousands of CPUs crunching numbers for data-intensive applications such as seismic modeling and drug discovery. Increasingly, however, grids are...

Coming to DVD: data from your company; PowerFile launches DVD archiving appliance.(Brief article)
September 4, 2006... Byline: Deni Connor PowerFile next week plans to roll out a DVD-based storage appliance designed to make archiving data faster and retrieving it easier. The Active Archive Appliance (A3) is less expensive than fixed, disk-based...

U.S. telecom "reform" as an object lesson?
September 4, 2006... Byline: Scott Bradner The framers of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 aimed to ensure real telecommunications services competition for residential and enterprise customers. It's safe to say few observers outside of the shrinking...

Complexity, crisis and corporate nets.
September 4, 2006... Byline: Johna Till Johnson What do corporate networks have to do with the emerging science of complexity theory? More than you would think. In case you don't know, complexity theory is the study of complex adaptive systems, which are...

FaceTime secures distributed enterprises' use of IM.
September 4, 2006... Byline: Cara Garretson FaceTime Tuesday announced a new version of its security and management software for IM communications designed to accommodate distributed workforces. IMAuditor 8.0, slated for availability at the end of...

Taking care of the network: Some essential tools.
September 4, 2006... Byline: Ron Nutter I just got promoted at a small but growing company. Instead of being responsible for just the servers and some of the user support, I now have to take care of everything related to the network. My predecessor didn't...

Q&A: Citrix positions its acquisitions around an 'access management vision'.
September 4, 2006... Byline: John Cox Citrix made its name with a specialized software product, Citrix MetaFrame, now called Presentation Server. It was used by a blue chip list of Fortune 500 companies to run Windows applications on servers, accessed by...

CipherTrust blocks bad mail at the network edge with upgraded appliance.(CipherTrust Edge 2.1)
September 4, 2006... Byline: Cara Garretson CipherTrust Wednesday plans to announce an upgraded version of its Edge appliance that includes new features for blocking annoying and malicious e-mail messages before they enter the corporate network. ...

Sprint Nextel offering wireless software packages.
September 4, 2006... Byline: Denise Pappalardo Sprint Nextel is rolling out a series of wireless software packages for business customers to better support employees in the field and keep track of assets. The wireless service provider launched the...

Letters to the editor: "What users hate about IT pros".
September 4, 2006... What users hate I read with great interest "What users hate about IT pros", hoping to find a better way to serve my users. I came away with two strategies that I've incorporated into my day-to-day processes: 1) I wait around while my...

FMC: What's in it for the enterprise? * Fixed-mobile convergence.(Brief article)
September 5, 2006... Byline: Jim Duffy One of the hotter convergence topics of late is fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) - the ability to merge wired and wireless telecom resources so that users can have what amounts to their desktop phone in that handheld...

Xirrus QoS bridges wired-wireless gap; * Xirrus QoS capability works for both switched Wi-Fi and wired networks.
September 5, 2006... Byline: Jeff Caruso Xirrus this week introduced what it is calling the industry's first QoS capability for both switched Wi-Fi and wired networks. QoS controls are important for supporting time-dependent applications such as voice...

Compliance concerns C-level execs; * ControlPath survey shows that very few are fully confident that their companies are compliant.(Brief article)
September 5, 2006... Byline: Amy Schurr If you worry about your organization's regulatory compliance status, you're not alone. A recent survey from compliance management software vendor ControlPath shows that only 28% of respondents are fully confident...

Cisco targets application performance at branch offices; * Cisco debuts branch office wares.
September 5, 2006... Byline: Denise Dubie Cisco is set to introduce a product suite designed to help enterprise IT managers better manage their branch office operations. Cisco's Wide Area Application Services (WAAS) suite includes multiple technologies -...

How do you keep long-term data? * What's your policy for storing e-mails that must be retained?
September 5, 2006... Byline: Michael Osterman There is some content in e-mail and, to a lesser extent instant messaging systems, that absolutely must be retained on a long-term basis. For example, as messaging systems are used increasingly for sending...

Legal aspects of managing technology; * Book takes on technology's legal issues.(Column)
September 5, 2006... Byline: M. E. Kabay As I mentioned in a recent column, I'm team-teaching the course on Cybercrime and Cyberlaw at Norwich University this semester with Prof. Julie Tower-Pierce. Along with the two books I reviewed in that column, we're...

Amazon sells processing power of its compute grid; * Amazon launches beta of compute cluster program.(Brief article)
September 5, 2006... Byline: Deni Connor Amazon last week released the beta of a compute cluster from which users can buy processing power for their Web-based applications. The Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud, also called Amazon EC2, is similar to Amazon...

Where Novell makes its money; * Peering into Novell's Q3 balance sheet.
September 5, 2006... Byline: Dave Kearns Novell reported its third quarter earnings last week (earnings PDF)- third quarter, because the company's fiscal year begins Nov. 1, each year. Overall, it was about what the financial analysts had predicted -...

Juniper multifunction devices give customers choice of antispam, antivirus; * Juniper provides flexible options for security box.
September 5, 2006... Byline: Tim Greene Juniper is adding more feature options to its multifunction security platforms, making them flexible gateways for branch offices in large corporate deployments. The SSG devices, introduced earlier this year, come...

What a 1990's technology could teach us today about writing WAN-friendly apps; * Remember the usefulness of Modified Data Tag technology?
September 5, 2006... Byline: Steve Taylor,aJim Metzler A lot of attention is paid in the industry to network and application optimization techniques such as compression, caching and protocol optimization. This attention is justified as these are all...

Branch office challenges hitting the spotlight: What's your concern? * Factors driving increased interest in the branch office.
September 5, 2006... Byline: Robin Gareiss The number of calls, e-mails, and general inquiries I've been receiving about the branch office has done the hockey-stick incline in the past few months. At the same time, you've probably noticed a lot of vendors...

Less power (consumption) to the people; * Buyers want boxes that consume less power.
September 5, 2006... Byline: Mike Karp The battle going on right now between Intel and Advanced Micro Devices for the hearts and minds of CPU lovers everywhere reflects a similar state of affairs in storage. I'm not referring to the fight for sockets on...

Rube Goldberg variations for data center management; * How data center monitoring software can resemble Rube Goldberg contraptions.
September 5, 2006... Byline: John Burke Ridiculously complicated mechanical systems for accomplishing straightforward tasks are often referred to as Rube Goldberg machines. They're funny in cartoons, less so in real life. Unfortunately, as Nemertes is...

Idera rolls out SQL Server security and compliance monitoring tool.
September 5, 2006... Byline: Deni Connor Idera, a vendor of tools for managing and protecting SQL Server installations, Tuesday announced server compliance and security software that lets organizations identify users with inappropriate access rights and...

Qwest closes OnFiber deal.(Brief article)
September 5, 2006... Byline: Network World Staff Qwest Communications announced Tuesday that it has completed its acquisition of OnFiber Communications. The service providers first announced the planned $107 million all-cash deal in May. OnFiber is a...

TIA President Flanigan to retire.(Telecommunications Industry Association)(Brief article)
September 5, 2006... Byline: Jim Duffy The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) said this week that President Matthew Flanigan announced his intention to retire at the end of the year. Flanigan made the announcement at TIA's board of directors...

Redback loses Verizon's edge router deal?
September 5, 2006... Byline: Jim Duffy UBS Warburg has downgraded the stock of Redback Networks, citing "industry contacts" indicating that Redback has lost an edge router deal at Verizon. UBS lowered the stock from Buy 2 to Neutral 2, according to a...

Recent acquisitions point to security becoming mainstream; * Heavyweight vendors snap up security buys.
September 6, 2006... Byline: Scott Crawford In recent weeks, we have seen a significant acceleration of the convergence of security companies with players dominant in broader aspects of IT. EMC's acquisition of RSA Security earlier this summer, for...

The future of ID mgmt. is identity providers and user-centric identity; * The thoughts of MaXware's Marcus Lasance.
September 6, 2006... Byline: Dave Kearns It seems that user-centric, user-controlled identity is claiming more people's attention all the time. Last issue, I told you about an awakening moment that Roger Sullivan of Oracle and Liberty Alliance had. Today,...

How one IBMer got out of a career rut; * Darryl Solie rejuvenated his engineering career by moving into a customer-facing role.
September 6, 2006... Byline: Linda Leung Darryl Solie spent 24 years at IBM developing the company's server and storage products. The people he'd communicate with every day were IBM people and he had little contact with customers. He'd gained broad...

Solutions to the consumer VoIP quality problem; * VoIP providers, service providers and users all have a role in improving VoIP quality.
September 6, 2006... Byline: Steve Taylor,aLarry Hettick Last time, we talked in some additional detail about the root cause of VoIP call quality degradation for users who subscribe to a BYOB (bring your own broadband) VoIP service. Today, we'd like to...

How to be an asset to your team: Get to know your company's business; * What drives your business and how can you help?
September 6, 2006... Byline: Dave Kearns It's been a long time since I actively encouraged network managers to get more involved with the business side of their organizations. In fact, I considered that the job was done and everyone was aware of the need...

As telecom goes, so go its fancy buildings; * So much for Global Crossing's digital neural net.
September 6, 2006... Byline: Carolyn Duffy Marsan COLUMBUS, Ind. - One block off the main drag of this all-American town is an architectural gem that is among the landmark buildings built in the bygone glory days of the telecom industry. Known as the...

Linux firms among Network World's top 10 open source companies list; * Cleversafe and Digium are two Linux-focused open source companies to watch.
September 6, 2006... Byline: Phil Hochmuth Network World recently scoured the Web and the venture capitalist ranks for the most interesting or promising open source firms. What we came up with is a list of the top 10 companiesayou should know about that...

Do outsourcers really know the costs of deals they have won? * If both sides are fair when negotiating deals, the customer will benefit in the end.
September 6, 2006... Byline: Dan Twing Back in April, I discussed the issue of companies understanding their own costs in order to make good decisions about outsourcing. One reader recently suggested that I turn the tables and discuss the same issue from...

Will the Wi-Fi Alliance certify anything? * Alliance strays in decision to certify non-standard products.
September 6, 2006... Byline: Joanie Wexler Apparently, adherence to formal standards is no longer a requirement in order for a product to be "blessed" by powerful consortia. Last week, the Wi-Fi Alliance officially announced plans to certify the...

ExtraLabs makes creating RSS feeds easy; * RSS development tools from ExtraLabs.(Really Simple Syndication)
September 6, 2006... Byline: Mark Gibbs In many organizations, keeping company members up to speed on business news and market intelligence is difficult. E-mail has been a popular vehicle but as the volume of work-related messaging has increased...

Gartner chooses Savvis as tops in Web hosting; * Savvis is at the top of Gartner's Magic Quadrant.
September 6, 2006... Byline: Carolyn Duffy Marsan Gartner has placed Savvis at the top of its Magic Quadrant listing of Web hosting firms for the first time in the managed service provider's history. Savvis bested IBM, AT&T, Verizon Business and Qwest...

Paxar printers get single IP address for wired, wireless links.
September 6, 2006... Byline: John Cox White Plains, N.Y. - The latest print server software from Paxar Corporation now lets network administrators assign a single IP address to cover the printer's twin network interfaces, wired and wireless Ethernet. ...

Q&A: Winner of Silicon Valley's giant Wi-Fi deal isn't fazed by size of net.
September 6, 2006... Byline: John Cox The company that will provision and run the 1,500 square-mile wireless mesh network in Silicon Valley that was announced this week is an almost unknown, privately held network operator based in Grand Haven, Mich., home...

NIST guidelines on e-mail security; * NIST publishes guidelines for e-mail security.(National Institute of Standards and Technology)(Column)
September 7, 2006... Byline: M. E. Kabay One of the nicest aspects of writing this column for so long (I started in 2000) is the tremendous support I get from readers in industry, education and government. For example, I just received a friendly note from...

Cisco tops multifunction security platform lineup; * Cisco outsells others in the multifunction security devices stakes.
September 7, 2006... Byline: Tim Greene Since the third quarter of 2003, the top four vendors of multifunction security platforms that include firewalls and VPNs have remained unchanged, according to a study by Synergy Research. The top four slots...

Disaster recovery, five years later; * What's really important about disaster recovery.
September 7, 2006... Byline: Mike Karp When a reporter asked me last week what the major impact of 9/11 was on the storage industry, a number of answers popped into my mind. But her follow-up question was even better: "If backup, recovery, and disaster...

SMBs get more spam; * Tips to avoid some of the onslaught.(small and medium sized companies)
September 7, 2006... Byline: James E. Gaskin If you think you get more spam because you're a small business, you're right. Big companies have more resources to throw at the problem, but a recent study by an e-mail outsource vendor provides some hints to...

Billing, Wiretapping and Security; * TEMA rates carriers; NSA's wiretapping program ruled illegal; and Cisco talks a big security game.(Telecommunications Expense Management Association and its services)(National Security Agency's wiretapping called illegal)(Brief article)
September 7, 2006... Byline: Jim Duffy Denise Pappalardo reports that a new industry group called the Telecommunications Expense Management Association says it will monitor and publish report cards on how the carriers perform in terms of billing, dispute...

Sept. 11, 2006, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
September 7, 2006... Past weeks GOOD: Getting an early read on tsunamis Governments seeking inexpensive technology to warn of tsunamis could be interested in a free software application that monitors vibrations in the hard disks of computers in an...

How much has IM impacted e-mail? * Views on the impact of IM on e-mail.(instant messaging)(Brief article)
September 7, 2006... Byline: Michael Osterman Some believe that instant messaging will eventually replace the use of e-mail, while others believe that both e-mail and IM will co-exist because of their capabilities to complement each other. We have...

New Word flaw being used in attacks; * Patches from Gentoo, Debian, Ubuntu* Beware virus that spreads through an e-mail purporting to be a returned e-mail message* Mozilla taps former Microsoft executive for security, and other interesting reading.
September 7, 2006... Byline: Jason Meserve Today's bug patches and security alerts: New Word flaw being used in attacks Hackers continue to poke holes in Microsoft's Office software. Symantec warns that an unpatched flaw in the Windows 2000 version ...

Sept. 11, 2006 Cartoon of the Week.
September 7, 2006... All cartoons Related story a

CiRBA updates server consolidation, virtualization management tool; * CiRBA releases CiRBA 3.1.
September 7, 2006... Byline: Deni Connor CiRBA last week announced the latest version of its data center consolidation software, which includes enhanced support for virtualized environments and expanded system audit capabilities. CiRBA 3.1 lets...

Erickson Retirement optimizes bandwidth with policy management; * Retirement community needed to optimize traffic and prioritize bandwidth.(Erickson Retirement Communities)
September 7, 2006... Byline: Denise Dubie Some may not expect retirement communities to have challenges allocating bandwidth and speeding application traffic - after all they aren't the first group of people that comes to mind when thinking of heavy users...

Latest Novell Press book delves into clustering for Linux and NetWare; * 'Novell Cluster Services for Linux and NetWare'.(Book review)
September 7, 2006... Byline: Dave Kearns When you walk in to your local bookstore, can you still find the NetWare section? Don't bother looking though as there hasn't been a "NetWare" section for perhaps a dozen years - if ever there was one. Still, the...

How not to deploy an application over a WAN; * One reader shares a lesson learned.(wide area networks)
September 7, 2006... Byline: Steve Taylor,aJim Metzler Last time, we discussed some of the characteristics that determine whether an application is WAN-friendly or WAN-vicious, and gave a feedback from a reader. Today, we are going to provide some...

More metro WLANs; * WLANs to come in Minneapolis, San Francisco peninsula.(wireless local area networks)(Brief article)
September 7, 2006... Byline: Jeff Caruso More metropolitan wireless LAN contracts are in the news, with Cisco, IBM and others winning the contract for a huge wireless network down the peninsula in San Francisco, and BelAir Networks and U.S. Internet...

Juniper extends Ethernet cards to E320 edge router.(Juniper Networks Inc., E320 Broadband Services Router)(Brief article)
September 7, 2006... Byline: Jim Duffy Juniper Networks this week announced a series of enhancements to its E320 Broadband Services Router designed to improve the router's IPTV and "multiplay" service capabilities. Juniper is adding 10Gbps Ethernet...