Latest LAN news.
IPv6 not coming your way until 2012, 11/08/07: Routing guru Jeff Doyle says there's no need to move to IPv6 now, offers design tips for OSPF nets, discusses Layer 2 vs. Layer 3 routing, and shares more advice with attendees of his live Network World chat.
Cisco revenue, profit rose in Q1, 11/07/07: Cisco posted a double-digit rise in revenue in its fiscal first quarter ended Oct. 27, with an even bigger gain in profit.
Nortel makes money despite falling revenue, 11/07/07: Nortel Networks achieved a measure of financial recovery in the third quarter as it posted a small profit, even while revenue for most of its businesses fell.
Cisco and Nortel: A study in contrast, 11/08/07: Nortel released its earnings report this week, showing a return to profitability in the most recent quarter for the first time in five quarters.
Where's David?, 11/08/07: Jim and Steve are old enough to remember when the Goliath that is now Cisco had several viable competitors. While it is a stretch to say that today Cisco does not have any viable competitors in most of its traditional enterprise markets, it is only a bit of a stretch. The question this newsletter addresses is what happened to those competitors of yesterday and who if anybody can compete with Cisco in the future?
Preliminary deal signed for African cable system, 11/06/07: The e-Africa Commission has signed a memorandum of understanding with 5-P Holdings to construct a $2 billion undersea cable system planned to encircle Africa with connections to Europe, South America, India and the Middle East.
Cisco Discovery Protocol: Cisco Subnet blogger Raj Tolani discusses, "Cisco routers and switches use Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP). Some would argue that CDP doesn’t follow some security recommendations because it gives away some critical information about your network devices."
LAN switch security: What hackers know about your switches with Cisco's Christopher Paggen: Contrary to popular belief, Ethernet switches are not inherently secure. Security vulnerabilities exist all over the place. Did you know that there are vulnerabilities in the control plane protocols like STP and CDP? There are holes in the data plane protocols too. Christopher Paggen is prepared to tell you how to avoid these problems. Paggen is a technical marketing engineer for Cisco focusing on high-end firewalls. Join us for a live chat Tuesday Nov. 13 from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. EST, where you can ask him about configuring and securing switches, firewalls or anything else you want to talk about.
Editor's note: Starting the week of Nov. 19, you will notice a number of enhancements to Network World newsletters that will provide you with more resources and more news links relevant to the newsletter's subject. Beginning Monday, Nov. 12, the Network Architecture newsletter written by Network World Site Editor Jeff Caruso will be merged with the LAN News Alert and will be named the Network Architecture Alert. You'll get Jeff's analysis of the LAN market, which you will be able to read in full at NetworkWorld.com, plus links to the day's network architecture news and other relevant resources. This Alert will be mailed on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We hope you will enjoy the enhancements and we thank you for reading Network World newsletters.