Would you hire Dubai to run your network?

Schwartau: Would you hire Dubai to run your network? 03/20/06

In the debate about the ports issue, not enough people reduced the question to its basics: How does this or any other action affect national or network security? Let’s look at the details of what outsourcing really means. Let’s manage our …

Backspin: If there were an “American Idol” for IT, 03/20/06

What if there were a TV show called “American IT Idol”? Which high-tech leaders would wilt under the withering words of Simon Cowell?

Bradner: Debit-card snafu: Protecting the guilty yet again, 03/20/06

The open question is what actual liability the company will have in regard to the time, trouble and credit rating impact that hundreds of thousands of debit card holders have experienced. Sooner or later some court will realize that real damages …

Tolly: Measuring the new broadband, 03/20/06

Broadband providers seem to have a secret pact with each other, knowing that once one of them provides factual data about their networks and performance, they might all have to do it. While cable providers, for example, brag about how great cable is …

Cool Tools: 2 tools whose cool is in the concept, 03/20/06

What happens when I receive a product that doesn’t work as advertised or doesn’t shake my boots? Sometimes they rate reviews anyway.

Kamens: SOX education: How to enter the field, 03/20/06

If you’re interested in getting into the IT auditing field, now’s the time. The demand for highly trained and specialized individuals is high – companies cannot afford the appearance of not safeguarding their customers’ personal data.

‘Net Buzz: Your company logo on a postage stamp? 03/20/06

There are two significant numbers to report relative to Stamps.com, the online postage company we’ve written about a few times over the years.

Johnson: Conducting telecom talks, 03/20/06

Don’t give all your business to a single provider, even if it’s convenient. The name of the game is to keep your options open. Particularly in light of mergers between the former incumbent local exchange carriers and interexchange carriers, it’s wise …

Editorial: Management: Searching for system errors, 03/20/06

Search tools have simplified our lives in many ways, so why not network management? So reason the founders of Splunk, a start-up that has released a search product to make sense of logs and other types of event information generated by systems as they …

Dr. Internet: SSL VPN vs. Windows Remote Desktop for remote access, 03/20/06

What would be a more secure way to provide remote access to internal intranet resources – an SSL VPN or Windows Remote Desktop?

Nutter’s Help Desk: Problems connecting to a specific Web site, 03/20/06

If I connect directly to the cable modem, I can connect OK. If I dial in, I can connect OK. What should be my next steps in trying to solve this problem? Are there firmware updates I should be installing?

Gearhead: Useful U3 applications, 03/20/06

While application loading is noticeably slow, as long as the application’s reading and writing to the U3 drive is what we shall term ‘casual,’ operational performance will be adequate.