Info-Tech Advisor Newsletter articles from August 2000

Info-Tech Advisor Newsletter archives from August 2000

The Key to Guaranteeing User Satisfaction.
August 8, 2000... Sources: Compass America Study A recent Compass end-user satisfaction survey, "Money Can't Buy You Love: What Drives Desktop User Satisfaction?" revealed this key fact: * First level help desk support had the strongest positive...

First Win2K Service Pack Debuts.
August 8, 2000... Sources: CNet News.com Article, Microsoft Web Site Before Microsoft released Windows 2000 this year, many consultancies like Gartner Group and IDC recommended that businesses wait until the first service pack was available before making the...

Take Down Your Banner Ads.
August 8, 2000... Sources: Cambridge Technology Partners Study Marketing managers have been adhering to a killer myth that probably drains their advertising budget without providing real value. Killer Myth: Banner ads are the most effective method of...

DiffServ: 'Good Enough' Quality of Service.
August 8, 2000... Sources: DataCommunications Article, Intel Networking White a Paper, The Internet Society White Paper Extra bandwidth may solve some network traffic jams, but applications like IP telephony and streaming media need more than just a fat...

Tokens Keep Remote Workers in the Loop.
August 8, 2000... Sources: Information Security Article, Software Engineer Institute White Paper As the number of remote workers and telecommuters increase, many IT managers are moving toward token-based hardware systems for remote access security. ...

One Man's Garbage is Another Man's Internet Access.
August 8, 2000... Sources: WebBusiness Magazine Article, PC World Article, Computers for Schools Association Web Site, Electronic Product Recovery and Recycling Project Web Site If you've ever tried to get rid of obsolete computers, you know they aren't...

Apache: Free Can Equal Secure.
August 8, 2000... Sources: NetworkMagazine.com Articles Apache Web server accounts for 60% of all Web servers in use today, powering over six million Web sites. Apache's speed and efficiency are well known. With careful configuration, Apache can also be one...

IP Address Management: Don't Waste Time.
August 8, 2000... Sources: NetReference White Paper, Network Management Buyer Many IT professionals are still struggling with the time consuming task of assigning IP addresses manually. Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) reduces administrative load...

Outsource Network Management Drudge Work.
August 8, 2000... Sources: Business Communications Review Article, Network World Fusion Article Problem: Your staff has the potential to be real stars and heroes to company business units. Unfortunately, staff spends most of their time monitoring and...

Does Your Security Measure Up?
August 8, 2000... Sources: Information Week Survey Security is a number one concern for IT managers. Yet a new Information Week Global Security Survey of 4,900 executives, security professionals, and IT managers shows that not enough is being done. The...

IT Tutorials One Stop Shop.
August 8, 2000... Sources: InterOperability Lab Tutorials These days it is incredibly difficult to find quality tutorials on any number of IT related topics. What was once difficult just became easier. The InterOperability Lab has recently updated it...

E-Commerce Law: Sites You Should Know.
August 8, 2000... Sources: Business Quicktips.com Web Site, eComInfoCenter Web Site, THC Press Article The Web's global reach has turned e-commerce legislation into a murky business. To help you delve through the legalese, we've tracked down a collection of...

Planning a Distributed E-Learning Infrastructure.
August 8, 2000... Sources: 3Com White Paper "Training" has become the buzzword of successful companies who understand its significance in relation to company morale, growth, and overall business success. In today's business environment, companies are...

IT Advice for Mid-Sized Shops.
August 8, 2000... Sources: TriActive White Paper In the real world, what's sauce for the goose isn't always sauce for the gander. By the same token, what works in large IT organizations isn't always feasible for smaller shops. TriActive understands this...

Cracking Win2K User Passwords.
August 8, 2000... Sources: Windows NT Security Article Despite all the warnings, end-users still insist on picking easy-to-crack passwords, threatening network security. Therefore, it's good security policy to test the robustness of user passwords from time...

Go Global with Voila.
August 8, 2000... Sources: Voila Voila, a service of France Telecom, is one of the most popular search tools in Europe. With proven expertise in a linguistically diverse market, and with 145 million URLs already in their database, Voila has launched its...

Get Educated with elementK.
August 8, 2000... Sources: elementK In today's dynamic, fast-changing business world, training becomes essential for your employees to have the necessary skills to compete in the competitive marketplace. * elementK.com is an online training center that...

Everypath: Move Now to the Wireless Web.
August 8, 2000... Sources: Everypath The Web site you have today may look fantastic when viewed from a desktop PC, but have you considered what visitors using mobile wireless devices are seeing? Chances are not much given that less than 2000 Web pages are...

eSprocket: Used Equipment Hot Spot.
August 8, 2000... Sources: eSprocket Today's used capital equipment marketplace is highly fragmented. Equipment listings, whether through paper-based catalogs or individual dealers, are typically regionally oriented. * eSprocket is an online marketplace...

Make Your Site Rock Solid.
August 8, 2000... Sources: siteROCK The importance of 24/7 uptime to any e-business venture isn't news, but a surefire way of achieving it would definitely rock the headlines. The fact is that availability and high performance cost money. A redundant...

E-Meetings: A Win-Win Business Solution.
August 22, 2000... Sources: WorldCom Conferencing White Papers Sending an employee to an in-person meeting requiring plane travel costs a company $1,365.21 in hard costs. This doesn't even address soft costs associated with lost productivity and personal...

Decide on MCSE training before Dec 31st 2000 ...
August 22, 2000... Sources: Microsoft Web Site Last year, Microsoft stunned the IT community by announcing they would end the Microsoft Certified System Engineer (MCSE) examinations for Windows NT 4.0 after December 31, 2000. Consequently, there are two...

The Dark Side of SANs.
August 22, 2000... Sources: ComputerWorld Articles, IT-Director Articles Enterprise Management Associates found that 80% of IT professionals have at least one major "gripe" about storage area networks (SANs) - high cost, immaturity, poor interoperability -...

ASPs: Mitigate the Risk.
August 22, 2000... Sources: Computerworld Article, InformationWeek, IT-Director Article, TechnologyEvaluation.com, TechWeb Article ASPs will become a major application delivery model for small-and medium-sized companies. * Alarming Fact: Gartner Group...

Multiprocessor Workstations: Are Two Better Than One?
August 22, 2000... Sources: Aberdeen Group White Microsoft Tutorial Until recently, purchasing MP ( multiprocessing ) workstations was not recommended; they came for a high price and were typically not utilized since both applications and operating systems...

Knowledge Management Tools You Should Use.
August 22, 2000... Sources: CIO Magazine Supplement The right knowledge management (KM) technologies can dramatically increase your competitive edge. * In a nutshell, KM (Knowledge Management) is the ability to develop, retain, and leverage what your...

Flash or Functionality?
August 22, 2000... Sources: Dack.com Article Macromedia Flash is a powerful tool for creating eye-catching Web site animation. Yet Flash overkill can ruin Web site usability Flash Action Plan: 1. Retain Functionality: If you decide to use Flash...

A Good Idea for your Programming Department...
August 22, 2000... Sources: Compass America White Paper Application development projects that take a year or more to complete can result in products that are obsolete before they hit the desktop. For your next project, set a six-month window and focus on the...

Keep Your Eye on Shifting IT Values.
August 22, 2000... Sources: ATKearney Study, EarthWeb Article, InformationWeek Article The role of Information Technology (IT) has been changing and evolving. Today, IT is a critical facet of business strategy. If your organization has not bought into this...

What Every CIO Should Know About Hardware Acquisition.
August 22, 2000... Sources: Compass America White Paper, NetDay Compass Web Site IT spending is rising rapidly and becoming increasingly dispersed through the enterprise. Companies still rely on financial methods like cash flow and depreciation when making...

The Practical Manager's Guide to Linux.
August 22, 2000... Sources: Linux International Guide Most guides for Linux are written for IT mangers who require further information on usability, functionality, interoperability and support. Linux International has put together a manager's guide with...

Service Level Agreement Template.
August 22, 2000... Sources: Support Research Network Template Service Level Agreements (SLAs) have traditionally been difficult to put together since they comprise so many different elements. Help desk SLAs must usually specify the following: *...

Data Warehousing in a SAP R/3 World.
August 22, 2000... Sources: Hurwitz Group White Paper The quickly growing list of software vendors offering packaged data warehouse solutions for SAP R/3 can attest to the need for these products. SAP R/3 users have made it clear that they appreciate the...

New Metadata Standard Integrates Warehouses.
August 22, 2000... Sources: entOnline Article, Meta Data Coalition Web Site, Interactive Week Metadata describes how data is formatted, as well as how, when, and by whom it was collected. In essence, metadata is data about data. Oracle's recently...

Testing and Tuning Quality of Service.
August 22, 2000... Sources: Network World Fusion Supplement, Ganymede Tutorial As network usage increases, quality of service (QoS) techniques are required for treating various classes of network traffic differently. The question becomes how can you...

UUNet's Debuts Full-Featured VPN Service.
August 22, 2000... Sources: UUNet UUNet recently launched an Internet-based VPN service called UUsecure Total Access. This service promises to reduce the cost of VPNs while offering more services than a non-IP system can provide. Here are some features: ...

Rest in Peace with RIPTech.
August 22, 2000... Sources: RIPTech Inc. Stories of hacker attacks flood the IT news headlines. Large companies can hire security professionals to monitor their systems 24/7, but small-and medium-sized companies just don't have that option. RIPTech is a...

Leverage Presentations.
August 22, 2000... Sources: Brainshark Inc. PowerPoint is the most popular presentation-building tool available today. Yet presentations are often treated as one-off endeavors never to be used again. The time spent in creating these electronic slide shows...

CommerceRoute Offers B2B Infrastructure.
August 22, 2000... Sources: CommerceRoute, Inc. Business-to-business e-commerce has clear benefits - faster business processes lead to lower transaction costs. For many smaller companies and their partners, however, the investment required to build and...

Manage Employee Goals Online.
August 22, 2000... Sources: WebMBO.com If you use the Management By Objectives (MBO) performance evaluation system and have lots of employees who can't easily meet face-to-face, here's a great tool to help: WebMBO.com. This hosted application allows online...