Personal Computer World articles from July 2005

Personal Computer World archives from July 2005

Editorial - Make broadband more accessible. Rob Jones warns that finding the best broadband service is more complicated than you might think.(Editorial)
July 1, 2005... Everyone likes a bargain but, equally, everyone likes to make sure that, when they make a big purchase, they spend their money wisely. And with broadband, achieving both of the above is proving more and more difficult. I will start by...

How we test. Performance testing is an important part of PCW's reviewing process and to obtain our authoritative results we use the UK's best PC testing resource - VNU Labs. Here we explain why you can trust our results and give you a tour of our most frequently used benchmark programs.
July 1, 2005... One of the main reasons people upgrade their PCs is because their old model seems 'too slow'. But how do you tell whether the one you're going to replace it with is any faster? At PCW we take PC testing very seriously and we have the UK's best...

Dual steps to the future.
July 1, 2005... Byline: Clive Akass. Computing took two steps forward last month with the formal release of 64bit Windows operating software and the debut of dual-core processors from AMD and Intel. Microsoft also gave some details of the next-generation...

Desktop supercomputing a reality.(Orion Multisystems, new product)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... Supercomputing is coming to (or under) the desktop, judging from two announcements made last month. Apple claims the new Tiger version of the Mac 0S allows local networks to be configured easily for distributed processing, achieving...

Lots of watts may eliminate adapters.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) specialist Powerdsine ran this razor from a Cat5 cable to make the point that its latest equipment can deliver more watts over a network. The company says at least two major manufacturers are developing a chip to allow...

The mobile of the future.(mobile computers)
July 1, 2005... Byline: Clive Akass. There was some reinforcement last month for the view that mobile computers will evolve a dominant format somewhere between that of a small laptop and a large handheld. Microsoft chairman Bill Gates flourished a...

UK man gets $10k for Moore's birthday.(David Clark)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... Intel gave a British engineer a $10,000 'birthday present' last month. Not for his own birthday but to mark the 40th anniversary of Moore's law. The company offered the money for a copy of the 1965 edition of Electronics magazine, which...

3D display breakthrough.(three dimensional)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... Two breakthroughs were claimed last month in the development of 'autostereoscopic' screens that offer 3D views without the need for special glasses. A US company called Opticality announced what it claims is the largest ever example, a...

Laptop fuel cell.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... IBM and Sanyo have developed a methanol fuel cell system that can power laptops for up to eight hours. Sanyo claimed its prototype system is designed to be compatible with most current Thinkpads.

Tenner broadband.
July 1, 2005... UK Online is offering uncapped 512K broadband access for [pounds sterling]9.99 a month, but only in areas with very good lines - see our Test Bed blog at www.pcw.co.uk. - Broadband feature - page 91.

Itanium gets server version of new OS.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... Microsoft is to offer a version of Longhorn for the Itanium 2 processor, the company announced - just weeks after pulling the plug on an Itanium 2 version of Windows XP. The apparent double-take reflects a shift in the market for...

Microsoft sued in jpeg patent dispute.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... Microsoft is one of 44 companies being sued by Forgent Networks for allegedly infringing a jpeg graphics compression patent. Microsoft claims the patent is invalid because Forgent was not the first to invent the technology. It also claims that...

Longhorn ready in 2006.
July 1, 2005... Byline: Tom Sanders. Microsoft has confirmed that Longhorn, the next generation of Windows, is on track for release late next year and will support both 32bit and 64bit hardware and applications. At the Winhec conference, Bill Gates...

Live comms goes mobile.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... Microsoft plans to extend to mobile devices the comprehensive messaging facilities offered by its new Office Live Communications Server 2005 product. A first step will be the launch of a client providing instant messaging and presence...

Hybrid disk enables 'anytime' laptop.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... Microsoft and Samsung have developed a hybrid hard disk and flash drive that is said to reduce power consumption by 10 per cent. Solid-state caches have long been used to boost disk performance; the new design uses non-volatile memory to reduce...

Netgem's freeview box is also a hub.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... Netgem has launched a [pounds sterling]89.99 Freeview box that acts as a home hub, as well as enabling a standard TV to receive more than 30 free digital stations. The Iplayer can pipe stills, video or audio from your PC from a standard...

Hush babies.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... Quiet PC specialist Hush has launched a new E-Series range of Windows XP Media Center models, using distinctive alloy cases that double as a heat sink. Price ranges from about [pounds sterling]1,220 ex VAT. www.hushtechnologies.co.uk.

Toshiba takes on Ipod.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... Device makers still see a lot of mileage in the market opened by Apple's Ipod, and Toshiba is the latest to launch an Ipod-style player, coloured white like the original and almost as elegant. The Gigabeat, which can hook into Napster's...

Dual-core battle begins.
July 1, 2005... Intel beat AMD to market with a dual-core processor by just a few days. But it launched only a single 32bit dual-core 3.2GHz Pentium Extreme Edition 840, while AMD offered a range of 64bit Opteron server engines and promised a similar raft of...

Staying single costs more.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... AMD reckons 500 Intel Nocona Xeon processors, each drawing around 111w, cost more than $84,000 ([pounds sterling]44,000 approx) a year to run at Californian prices. As a result, cutting the power drain on processors can save big organisations a...

View our test results live on the web.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... PCW has expanded the range of performance results we publish on our website, giving readers a far more comprehensive listing of products, how they perform in our independent tests, as well as their full specs. We are currently the only UK...

Two is not always better than one.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... Our first lab tests on Intel's dual-core EE840 processor produced no surprises. We compared the dual-core 3.2GHz EE840 with its fastest single-core equivalent, a 3.7GHz Extreme Edition. Overall the dual-core was 5.8 per cent faster, despite its...

Wimax chips in for air broadband.
July 1, 2005... Wireless broadband came a step closer last month, with the release of Wimax chips from Fujitsu and Intel that should bring equipment costs closer to Wifi levels. The Intel chip, codenamed Rosedale, is likely to be implemented as standard on...

Company problems throw doubt on rural services.(Cable and Wireless PLC)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... The economics of rural access were thrown into sharp focus at the London launch of the Intel Wimax chip by the problems of Mesh Broadband, which was sub-contracted by Cable and Wireless to provide links to villages in Bedfordshire. The...

Jim Baker promotes Telabria's new product.(Wimax and Wireless Broadband Access Conference)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... Jim Baker was at London's Wimax and Wireless Broadband Access Conference to promote Telabria's new product, a ruggedised access box that it says bridges the gap between Wifi and 3G. The AP-3G is a portable Wifi access point that can provide...

Voice on a sound footing. Speech input has become viable on PCs and will soon be available on mobiles. But it has a long way to go before you can throw away your keyboard, writes Clive Akass.
July 1, 2005... Mobile phones and PDAs are about to get speech recognition technology good enough to take dictation for text messages - although most of the processing will be done by remote servers, not the handsets. Many phones already respond to voice...

Making speeches is big business.(forecast of voice synthesis)
July 1, 2005... Text-to-speech translation is as impressive in its own way as speech-to-text. Forget Stephen Hawkins: his famous voice, a product of early speech synthesis, is retained only as a marketing asset. Modern equivalents sound real and can reproduce...

Flash in the pan.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... Adobe's $4b ([pounds sterling]2.1b) takeover of Macromedia last month has created a publishing giant that spans both the traditional and online media - and stands a greater chance of fighting off the threat from Microsoft. The acquisition,...

AA leads the way.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... The AA has launched a revamped version of its satellite navigation system. The AA Navigator is available as a [pounds sterling]379.99 all-in-one system that also functions as a personal organiser and mp3 player. It can also be purchased...

Analysis - Shadow over Computex birthday.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... Byline: Clive Akass. Computex, Asia's biggest computer show, celebrates its 25th birthday this month at a tricky time for host country Taiwan. The quarter-century has seen the island emerge as the workshop of the IT industry, producing a...

Tiger stalks Longhorn.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... A major upgrade of Mac OSX, launched last month, has a revamped search facility that preempts a promised feature of Longhorn, the next generation of Windows (see pages 18). Apple describes the new release, codenamed Tiger, as its most important...

Video calls getting in the picture.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... Video calls have yet to go mainstream despite the spread of broadband access - perhaps partly because quality depends on the upstream speed that tends to be lower than downstream data rates, yet video links are viable. Apple's new Ichat AV...

Blinkx is smarter with folders and TV searches.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... Some of the functionality of Tiger's Spotlight (see above) can be found in the free search utility Blinkx, from which Apple appears to have copied the idea of smart folders. The utility's developer, also called Blinkx, claims to have been...

Pocket desktop.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... USB drives that let you carry your PC workspace in your pocket will be available by Christmas, after a deal between a US and an Irish company. Technology from California-based U3 will provide secure storage of data, personal settings and...

Net monitor.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... A new utility lists computers connected to your PC and their processes. Microworld's free ViewTCP monitoring tool can pinpoint remote network addresses suspicious applications are accessing and log the activities of spam and spyware. Go to...

Small drive.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... Seagate has launched what it claims is the world's highest-capacity 2.5in notebook drive. The 120GB drive heads the Momentus 5400 range and a 100GB drive heads the sibling Momentus 7200 range. The ranges differ in their spin rates of 5,400rpm...

Columns - Inside information - Gain power with a clear conscience. Gordon Laing explains how PC performance need not be compromised for environmental responsibility.(Column)
July 1, 2005... Byline: Gordon Laing, gordonl@pcw.co.uk. Most of us are becoming pretty savvy at conserving power. We turn our lights off, buy energy-efficient domestic appliances and understand that a TV on standby is powering more than a little red...

Columns - Kewney @ large - Media consumers are so predictable ... Guy Kewney believes that technology will soon be able to second guess our every move.(Column)
July 1, 2005... Byline: Guy Kewney, guyk@pcw.co.uk. If there is one unshakeable law of the media, it is that it gets more and more complex; it never simplifies. Admittedly, my memory doesn't go back to the days of painting on cave walls, so I'm not...

Columns - Straight talking - Copy protection or chaos theory? Barry Fox argues that Hollywood's battle with piracy seems bogged down with confusion and contradiction.(Advanced Access Content System)(Column)
July 1, 2005... Byline: Barry Fox, barryf@pcw.co.uk. In Hollywood's words, let's cut to the chase. Professional pirates will always find a way to get new movies on the street long before they are released to pay-TV or home video. They only have to bribe...

Review.
July 1, 2005... Byline: Edited by Chris Cain. This month our reviews section plays host to two new technologies, as well as improvements on existing hardware and software. Whether you're looking for a whole system, an upgrade to your existing one or...

Reviews - Tiny.com Media Center SL. A Media Center PC designed for the living room and aimed at the budget-conscious buyer.(Product/Service Evaluation)
July 1, 2005... Byline: Paul Allen. Microsoft's Media Center may have arrived some time ago, but it's not until the low-cost PC suppliers start selling these systems that you know they're here to stay. The Tiny Media Center SL is proof that OEMs are...

Reviews - Hardware - Evesham Quest Explorer. Powerful portable with long battery life.(Product/Service Evaluation)
July 1, 2005... Byline: Rory Reid. Evesham's Quest Explorer is one of the first notebooks to use AMD's new Turion 64 CPU - a mobile version of the Athlon 64 designed to help regain ground lost to Intel's Pentium M. While the Quest Explorer represents...

Reviews - Hardware - Hi-Grade DMS II 3400. Bags of connectivity and features.(Product/Service Evaluation)
July 1, 2005... Byline: Will Stapley. Hi-Grade's DMS II 3400 follows on from the impressive DMS 3000 featured in our March group test. A 3.4GHz Pentium 4 sits with 512MB of Ram, while a PCI Express Radeon X300 handles graphics. The latter is fine for...

Reviews - Hardware - Samsung X25, Light and thin with fingerprint recognition.(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
July 1, 2005... Byline: Anthony Dhanendran. The idea behind Sonoma, Intel's latest version of Centrino, is that notebooks using it can offer more power while remaining both thin and light. Samsung's X25 doesn't disappoint. Despite a 1.86GHz Pentium M...

Reviews - Hardware - Mesh Elite Extreme PBX. Super-fast PC with amazing graphics.(Product/Service Evaluation)
July 1, 2005... Byline: Rory Reid. Mesh's latest is the first system we've seen that's powered by Intel's new Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 600 series processor, clocked at 3.73GHz. The most exciting feature is its use of Extended Memory 64 Technology...

Reviews - Peripherals - Canon Powershot A250. The successor to the A85 has arrived.(Product/Service Evaluation)
July 1, 2005... Byline: Will Stapley. If you caught our review of the Powershot A85 last year, you'll know we were suitably impressed. Now, less than a year on, Canon has decided to replace the A85 with the A520. The first difference is in the design....

Reviews - Peripherals - HP EP7112. Good quality but expensive.(Product/Service Evaluation)
July 1, 2005... Byline: Cliff Joseph. With high-definition TV looming on the horizon, a number of companies have started to realise that a good projector can offer a real alternative to expensive large-screen plasma TV sets. With that in mind, HP has...

Review - Peripherals - Waterproof gadgets.(Product/Service Evaluation)
July 1, 2005... Byline: Anna Lagerkvist. Technology and the outdoors used to mix about as well as fire and water, but nowadays there are plenty of gadgets ready to lend a hand to holiday-makers as they explore sand, wind and water this summer. So, whether...

Review - Peripherals - Canon MV830i. Easy-to-use but let down by picture quality.(Product/Service Evaluation)
July 1, 2005... Byline: Jonathan Parkyn. The middle model in Canon's new MV800 camcorder range is small and convenient to use, although it doesn't have any particularly distinguishing outward features. Unfortunately the MV830i suffers from the now...

Reviews - Peripherals - Lacie Silverscreen. Portable hard disk which hooks up to a TV.(Product/Service Evaluation)
July 1, 2005... Byline: Chris Cain. Lacie's Silverscreen is a portable hard disk with a difference. As well as being an ultra-quiet external USB drive, it can play media files directly to a television. The 40GB version holds about 40 DivX movies, 10,000...

Reviews - Peripherals - Seagate Pocket Hard Drive. Pill-shaped hard drive that fits in a pocket.(Product/Service Evaluation)
July 1, 2005... Byline: Scott Colvey. Affordable USB-based flash memory devices have pretty much killed the floppy disc drive as a portable storage option. Now, this market has seen a new entrant in the form of portable hard disks - and Seagate's new...

Reviews - Peripherals - T-Mobile MDA Compact. Large-screen phone and PDA with Bluetooth.(personal digital assistants)(Product/Service Evaluation)
July 1, 2005... Byline: Rory Reid. If you're looking for a mobile handset that's capable of more than just making calls and text messaging, T-mobile's MDA Compact is worth serious consideration. It's one of the latest smartphones designed around...

Review - Accessories - Viewsonic VP191b.(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
July 1, 2005... Byline: Chris Cain. The newest member of Viewsonic's professional range of LCD monitors, the VP191b is specifically aimed at graphic designers, engineers and the financial sector. Launched in March with a 19in 16ms panel, it has already...

Review - Accessories - Digital Cube I-Station.(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
July 1, 2005... Byline: Will Stapley. The 20GB I-Station from Digital Cube arrived too late to feature in our round-up of media players last month. It supports playback of DivX, Xvid and mpeg video files, along with a wide range of audio formats and...

Review - Accessories - Imation Disk Stakka.(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
July 1, 2005... Byline: Kelvyn Taylor. No matter how you store your CDs and DVDs, locating a particular disc or file can be difficult. Imation's Disk Stakka is a great solution that makes light work of storing and cataloguing almost any kind of 12cm...

Review - Accessories - Fujitsu Handy Drive Data Edition 100GB.(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
July 1, 2005... Byline: Chris Cain. Weighing in at just 180g and boasting a 100GB capacity, Fujitsu's Handy Drive is an extremely portable 2.5in hard disk enclosed in a smart, brushed silver chassis. Thanks to a USB2 connection, setting up is easy and...

Review - Peripherals/Components - Asus My Pal A730W. A fully-featured Pocket PC with Wifi.(Product/Service Evaluation)
July 1, 2005... Byline: Simon Crisp. Asus has finally released a Wifi-enabled version of its A730 My Pal Pocket PC. Powered by a 520MHz XScale processor, this latest model has practically every feature you can pack into a PDA except perhaps a mobile...

Review - Peripherals/Components - Aopen i915GMm-HFS. A good starting point for a quiet PC.(Product/Service Evaluation)
July 1, 2005... Byline: Simon Crisp. When Aopen unveiled its first Pentium M motherboard, the i855GMEm-LFS, the product quickly gained approval from people wanting to build a quiet, power conscious PC. But the fact it was based around a notebook chipset...

Review - Overclocking - Powercolor X850XT Platinum Edition.(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
July 1, 2005... Powercolor's X850XT Platinum Edition is the latest graphics card to hit the PCW test bench, boasting the top-of-the-range Radeon processor. Based on ATI's original reference design it features a 540MHz core clock, a 590MHz DDR (1.18GHz...

Review - Overclocking - Beantech Arc Platinum.(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
July 1, 2005... When it comes to aluminium PC cases most people think of Coolermaster or Lian Li, but more manufacturers are starting to offer interesting designs. The Platinum from Beantech is a prime example. Part of the Arc range, this is a...

Review - Overclocking - Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 (ST3400832A).(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
July 1, 2005... It wasn't so long ago that a 250GB hard drive seemed impossible to fill, but in these days of downloadable video and audio, it's fast becoming the minimum you need. The latest addition to Seagate's Barracuda range is a whopping 400GB,...

Review - Overclocking - Supanova Xion.(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
July 1, 2005... Want a case that stands out from the crowd? The Supanova Xion may be just what you've been looking for. Constructed from steel the model we received had a black finish with six green LEDs in the front panel, forming a giant X. But if that...

Review - Overclocking - Scythe Kamaboko Z.(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
July 1, 2005... The oddly named Kamaboko Z is the latest CPU cooler from Scythe. Weighing in at 0.65kg it's a hefty piece of kit that's compatible with Sockets 775, 478, 754, 939 and 940. To aid cooling the Kamaboko uses two copper heatpipes, which...

Review - Overclocking - Asus CT-479 CPU upgrade kit.(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
July 1, 2005... Originally designed for use in notebooks, Intel's Pentium M is also ideal for those who want to build a quiet desktop PC. Until very recently, however, compatible desktop motherboards have been based around Intel's i855GME chipset, which is...

Review - Overclocking - Kingston DDR2 PC2-6000 memory.(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
July 1, 2005... Kingston Technology has just added more DDR2 memory modules to its HyperX range. The unbuffered HyperX DDR2 750MHz (PC2-6000) memory modules are the fastest DDR2 memory currently available, with low latency timings of 4-4-4-12-1. Supplies will...

Review - Software - Roxio Easy Media Creator 7.5. A comprehensive suite of digital audio, video and photo-editing tools.(Product/Service Evaluation)
July 1, 2005... Byline: Cliff Joseph. The latest version of Easy Media Creator gets nil points for subtlety but a huge thumbs up for sheer value for money. Over the last few years, Roxio has taken over a number of its rivals and then, ironically, found...

Review - Software - Corel Designer Technical 12. A feature-filled upgrade that will appeal to technical illustrators.(Product/Service Evaluation)
July 1, 2005... Byline: Ken McMahon. When Corel acquired Micrografx and its technical drawing software, Designer, many thought the package would be quietly subsumed into the burgeoning Corel Draw. These suspicions appeared to be confirmed after a...

Review - Software - Orlogix Wincleaner Complete PC Care. Everything you need to keep your PC running at full speed.(Product/Service Evaluation)
July 1, 2005... Byline: Paul Monckton. Formerly known as Wincleaner Utility Suite, Complete PC Care is designed to give your system a thorough spring clean. It also provides a set of easy-to-use tools to protect you from malicious software, maintain your...

Review - Software - Openoffice.org 2. A new, improved version that gives Microsoft a run for its money.(Product/Service Evaluation)
July 1, 2005... Byline: Cliff Joseph. Strictly speaking, the installer program for Openoffice 2 says it's version 1.9.79 - but what's 0.0.21 of an upgrade between friends? We're more concerned about the daft decision to tack '.org' onto the end of the...

Review - Software - Ulead DVD Movie Factory 4. Great value with advanced editing features - a good choice for home users.(Product/Service Evaluation)
July 1, 2005... Byline: Ken McMahon. Most budget video-editing programs now provide some DVD authoring tools, so dedicated authoring applications need to offer something extra. Ulead's DVD Movie Factory 4 offers ease of use and the ability to get video...

Review - Software - Office Tutorials Compendium Pack.(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
July 1, 2005... Byline: Chris Cain. GSP's Compendium Pack is aimed at the PC novice and combines all six of its Windows and Office tutorials in a single box. There's advice on using XP Home, a step-by-step guide to the Internet, plus tips on the latest...

Review - Software - MP3 Ringtone Maker.(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
July 1, 2005... Byline: Rory Reid. MP3 Ringtone Maker is the latest addition to the Fasttrak audio software family. It can turn unprotected mp3 files, songs from an audio CD or tracks from the Magix Online Content Library into ringtones for your mobile...

Review - Software - Mammoth 800,000 Clip Art.(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
July 1, 2005... Byline: Kelvyn Taylor. Clip art junkies need look no further - if 17GB of royalty-free photos, vector graphics, web graphics and illustrations isn't enough to satisfy you, we're at a loss to suggest something more suitable. Supplied...

Review - Software - Skype.(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
July 1, 2005... Byline: Rob Jones. Voice over IP is growing quickly and Skype is one of the most popular services you can use to make free or low-cost calls via the net. Previously, only other Skype users could contact you via the service, but...

Feature - Broadband Britain - Broadband A to Z. All you need to know about usage levels and caps, finding the best package, tweaking the speed of your connection, plus we test 15 of the major services.
July 1, 2005... Internet access has come a long way during the past five years, so we decided it was time to bring you PCW's definitive guide to the current state of broadband in the UK and where it's headed. High-speed Internet access was released to the...

Feature - 64bit - Harness the power of 64. Find out whether this much vaunted technology will offer the promised speed, stability and security enhancements and whether it's worth making the move.(Product/Service Evaluation)
July 1, 2005... Byline: Artur Hoffman, Sascha Faber & Nicole Ott. Is your virus scanner slowing down your computer's performance? Does converting a video to DivX format take forever or does your web server collapse if too many customers place orders at the...

Group test - 24bit soundcards and speakers - Sound advice. PC audio has come a long way since the first beeps emanated from an 8bit soundcard. You can now get fantastic audio without breaking the bank, read on to find out how.(Product/Service Evaluation)
July 1, 2005... Byline: Niall Magennis. Not too long ago, a [pounds sterling]50 ghetto blaster would offer better audio performance than a top of the range PC costing a couple of thousand pounds. But with the coming of the mp3 age and the increasing...

Group test - PC bundles - Perfect packages; Many manufacturers offer enticing extras with new PCs, but is buying a machine based on its glamorous peripherals a good idea or a big mistake? We compare the quality of six PC bundles.(Product/Service Evaluation)
July 1, 2005... Byline: Rory Reid. Buying a new PC is quite straightforward in theory. You weigh up the price and specification of each potential machine and make a decision based on your individual needs. Things get a little more complicated, however,...

Network - Microsoft folds Maps.(Microsoft Authorised Premier Support )(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... The Microsoft Authorised Premier Support (Maps) program for service providers is being discontinued and enterprise customers and partners will be supported directly. Alistair Baker, Microsoft UK general manager, said customers preferred dealing...

Network - Carrier Ethernet test.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... The Metro Ethernet Forum is to begin testing next-generation network traffic protocols. Carrier Ethernet will deliver tens of Gbytes/sec transfer speeds as well as broadcast-quality video on demand. 'I see Ethernet developing in four...

Network - SMEs struggling.(Small and Medium-sized Businesses )(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... Almost 60 per cent of the UK's small and medium-sized businesses are unprepared and under-resourced to handle security and virus threats, with basic IT problems extending IT managers' average week by up to half a day. Security is the top IT...

Network - Double power for small networks. Mains plugs could be things of the past for many devices.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... Byline: Clive Akass. Homes and offices will be able to power a wider range of products directly from their networks thanks to a new product from power-over-ethernet (PoE) specialist Powerdsine. The 8001 Midspan will allow devices such as...

Network - Red Hat added to diskless boot tool.(Qualystem Lan-PC 3 Version 6)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... Byline: Daniel Robinson. Anew version of Qualystem's Lan-PC software enables diskless workstations to boot from a server instead of a local copy of Windows. The update improves performance and adds support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux...

Network - Check the rates or pay heavily for broadband. If the price you're paying hasn't reduced since you signed up, you're probably forking out too much, says Alan Stevens.
July 1, 2005... Have you checked recently to see how much you are paying for broadband? No? Then if you've read our broadband feature on page 91, you will know that you are in for a shock. New high-speed broadband services are generally available for less...