Letters: The high cost of blades

After reading your article on blade vs. rack mount performance and cost, I felt that I really needed to make a statement.

I work for a nonprofit and the bottom line is that blade technology will never be adopted by the small to midsize companies until they come down to 4U prices.

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The high cost of blades

After reading your article on blade vs. rack mount performance and cost, I felt that I really needed to make a statement.

I work for a nonprofit and the bottom line is that blade technology will never be adopted by the small to midsize companies until they come down to 4U prices.

We build our own servers (four processors with 4GB of RAM, 1333GHz FSB and storage requirement based hard drive) at a cost each of about $2,200. If you multiple that by 14 servers then we have a total cost of $30,800 (not the $116,700 for the IBM x3550).

Adding all the costs for 10G Ethernet and 1G Switch technology, the 4U solution is still the most cost-effective way to build the performance to run the business without breaking the bank.

David Oliver

I.T. director

Arizona’s Children Association

Wi-Fi security question

Regarding “Astounded by things legal” — you ask if it is reasonable to assume that unencrypted access points not displaying any logon challenge or acceptable-use policy are available for free use. I agree that the Wi-Fi owner should be held accountable.

My question is this: Are there access points available that would allow one to force an acceptable-use policy to display or require a logon? As far as I know, the ones at stores such as Best Buy and CompUSA don’t have that feature.

Kevin Weilbacher

Tampa, Fla.

Mark Gibbs replies: As far as I know there are no consumer Wi-Fi access points that have built-in login network login features or acceptable-use policy displays. There are many add-on packages and most of them are free (such as NoCat) that can be used and therein lies the problem — they are way outside of the average consumer’s ability to implement.

Unsecured Wi-Fi networks

The issues you pointed out for home unsecured Wi-Fi networks are just another symptom of a much larger issue that I have had to deal with professionally for a number of years . Computers are complex. Networks are more so. Wi-Fi is not for amateurs.

Look at it this way: I’m pretty sure all 50 states require some form of driver education and testing before you can legally drive a vehicle, and if you don’t have a license and get into trouble, even if it’s not your fault, you are automatically liable. Plots need to be licensed. Professional engineers, doctors and even my barber has to be certified. But when it comes to computers, which gets into the realm of security, the marketing gurus over the years have taught everyone that “you too can have a wireless network and not have to know anything about it!”

I hope the legal eagles eventually realize that if your home network is unsecured, this counts the same as not locking your front door. You then become liable for whatever happens because you did not use due diligence to protect your property. If you do not lock your car and it is stolen, you can kiss your insurance settlement goodbye — and properly so.

If you have a wireless network then it is up to you to protect it as you would protect all your other possessions. I sit in my office, with a highly secured wireless point, and I cannot believe how many unsecured networks I can find (our building sits across the street from residential property). Only my own conscience keeps me from raising havoc on those networks to try and get people’s attention. But then, they’d probably have no clue what was happening anyway. We have a country heavily dependent on computers, and just as totally computer illiterate.