* Welcome to the afternoon edition of Network World Daily News.
Breaking news
Google to buy Postini for $625 million
Google has agreed to buy messaging-security company Postini for $625 million in a move to increase the appeal of Google’s hosted applications among big businesses, the companies announced Monday.
The $2.3 million home networking lab
Brad Reese describes Scott Morris’s home networking testbed. Users question some of the gear. Morris jumps in. Join the discussion – and if you have an elaborate test system at home, let Brad know.
In depth
Attack of the killer bots
Organized criminals are hijacking millions of computers and using them as zombies that spew spam and malware across the Internet. But there are ways to fight back against the invasion of botnets.
Cooperative optimization
In modern MPLS networks with any-to-any connectivity, competition for network resources is fierce, not only among applications and users within each site but also among sites themselves. As a result, the challenge of providing critical application-performance guarantees is growing ever more daunting.
Review
Network General tool peers inside virtual machines
Network General has added modules to its NetVigil monitoring product, which let IT personnel peer into the workings of two popular virtualization products: VMware’s ESX and Microsoft Virtual Server.
From the blogs and forums
Susan Hanley explains why you don’t want to be like Tiger Woods when you build a collaboration system. Rand Morimoto looks at the best features in Exchange 2007. John Obeto takes another dim view of Google’s attempts to extend the expiration of the Microsoft anti-trust decision. Tyson Kopczynski discusses Outlook 2007 and public based free/busy information
Miles Baska frets that the anti-spam tool known as captcha may have been broken (and Adam Gaffin explains why we stopped using it on NetworkWorld.com). Greg Royal considers “Sprint’s long slow slide to oblivion.” Doug Alger takes a gander at cool robots in the data center.
Mark Seery asks if you’ll pay attention to “green marketing” for your networking equipment. Green Your Network wonders if the current green fad is just that without meaningful consumption cuts.
James Gaskin wonders if the nest of cables on and under your desk would win Avocent’s Spaghetti Mess contest. Paul McNamara considers an unfortunate juxtaposition on Yahoo News. Brad Reese explains the proper etiquette for listing Cisco certifications on a resume.
With broadband reliability up, do branch offices still need backup services? Join the discussion. One user wondered why our recent story on “five things you didn’t know about EMC” left out the contributions of the Data General technology EMC acquired. Users continue to debate iPhones in the enterprise – are BlackBerries still better? Users also ponder mainframes in the enterprise. Should CSOs report to CIOs – or vice-versa? And speaking of security, user meatpieandtatters wonders why upper management often seems so detached from security, despite its critical importance to their companies.
How to
Ron Nutter helps a user get his Adtran videoconferencing system to work again. Mark Gibbs discusses mice and learning Crystal Xcelsius.
Jerry Ervin looks at how to incorporate data-breach issues into your ongoing employee training.
More news
FastSoft speeds up WAN with FastTCP technology
Using FastTCP technology, start-up FastSoft claims to speed up IP WAN links using appliances at one end of connections, unlike competitors Riverbed, Juniper, Cisco and Expand, which have two-ended WAN-optimization gear.
Integration key issue in Massachusetts review of Open XML
The decision by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to consider adopting a second open document format could lead to integration issues but could also help revive similar legislation in other states.
Organized, financially driven online criminals a main corporate threat, IBM security exec says
Web 2.0, Internet technologies pose a security threat to businesses and consumers as motivation for cyber crime shifts from notoriety to financial gain.
