Welcome to This Week on NW Fusion, featuring breaking news, info, and tips from Network World Fusion, the most comprehensive enterprise networking resource on the Internet. See below for the week's biggest stories and check out our other e-mail newsletters at http://www.nwfusion.com/focus
1) Has IE dug itself a hole? 2) Wireless directory draws cheers, jeers 3) A Wider Net: When silence sounds too, well, silent 4) How GM saved a billion dollars 5) Un-wiring the wireless LAN 6) Review: Pedestal aids in security enforcement 7) Review: LANsurveyor 8.5 for Windows 8) Review: SCO’s UnixWare measures up with open source additions 9) Technology Update: FTTP boosts bandwidth in the last mile 10) Management Strategies: In the firing line 11) Wary buyers dampen software sales 12) The other side: Hardware revenue should be up 13) Dell continues network battle 14) Tools help manage domain names 15) ISPs look inward to stop spam 16) Start-ups automate global trade functions 17) Microsoft aims to save $1 billion this fiscal year 18) Siemens exec talks up VoIP
1) Cisco eyes larger data center, IT services roles
2) Revamped Cisco routers offer more choices and could thwart competitors
3) Verizon takes next big step toward VoIP
4) Test and buyer’s guide: Enterprise-level anti-spyware software
5) Wireless Wizards: Wireless-LAN simulation tools
6) The WLAN standards alphabet keeps growing
7) Nutter’s Help Desk: Fixing an Exchange WAN issue
8) Wiring old buildings: These networks are history
9) Gillette: On the leading edge of RFID
10) Test: Novell Linux Desktop
11) Trusted chip assures endpoint integrity
12) Identity introduction: Rolling out ID mgmt projects
13) Avaki bolsters data integration wares
14) Healthcare looks to biometrics
15) Cogent expanding base through buys
16) Department of Interior ‘Net battle continues
17) IBM tightening data synchronization
18) Foundry adds oomph to data center appliances
19) Microsoft extends NT, Exchange support
20) Federal anti-spam law gets mixed results
21) HP bulks up storage portfolio
22) Hardware virtualization called boon
23) Threat center aims to thwart viruses
24) Nortel system stops network threats
1) Cisco eyes larger data center, IT services roles
Cisco last week insisted, in the face of some skepticism, that its products will be the key ingredient for businesses trying to virtualize IT services such as storage, processing, applications and security.
DocFinder: 5053
https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2004/121304ciscoenterprise.html?tw
2) Revamped Cisco routers offer more choices and could thwart competitors
Cisco is readying enhancements to its edge routers that are designed to help corporate and carrier customers support multiple services, such as Ethernet, frame relay, ATM and broadband aggregation, across a wider variety of platforms.
DocFinder: 5054
https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2004/121304cisrouter.html?tw
3) Verizon takes next big step toward VoIP
Best known locally for its spring tulip festival, the small northwest Washington city of Mount Vernon now has a new claim to fame: the first central office in Verizon’s network to be converted from old-fashioned circuit switching to cutting-edge packet telephony.
DocFinder: 5055
https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2004/121304verizon.html?tw
4) Test and buyer’s guide: Enterprise-level anti-spyware software
We tested Webroot Software’s Spy Sweeper Enterprise Version 1.5, InterMute’s SpySubtract Pro Version 2.5, Tech Assist’s Omniquad AntiSpy Enterprise Edition Version 4.0 and PepiMK Software’s SpyBot – Search & Destroy Version 1.3. See which one we liked the best – and why. Plus, we’ve compiled a buyer’s guide that lets you compare detailed product specs from anti-spyware vendors.
DocFinder: 5056
https://www.nwfusion.com/reviews/2004/121304rev.html?tw
5) Wireless Wizards: Wireless-LAN simulation tools
The Wizards conjure up a solution for a user seeking a tool to help design his wireless network.
DocFinder: 5057
https://www.nwfusion.com/columnists/2004/121304wizards.html?tw
6) The WLAN standards alphabet keeps growing
The bad news is the alphabet of IEEE standards for wireless LANs keeps expanding. The good news is you can ignore a lot of it, at least until the new technology starts showing up in actual WLAN products.
DocFinder: 5058
https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2004/121304specialfocus.html?tw
7) Nutter’s Help Desk: Fixing an Exchange WAN issue
Ron Nutter helps a user connect Exchange 5.5 and Exchange 2003 servers across a WAN.
DocFinder: 5059
https://www.nwfusion.com/columnists/2004/121304nutter.html?tw
8) Wiring old buildings: These networks are history
Seventeenth and 18th century architects Sir Christopher Wren and Charles Bulfinch are renowned, respectively, for ornate, domed designs such as St. Paul’s Cathedral in London and the statehouses in Boston and Hartford. But they didn’t know jack about wiring a room with Cat5e.
DocFinder: 5060
https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2004/121304widernethistory.html?tw
9) Gillette: On the leading edge of RFID
Early adopter Gillette orders 500 million chips, but moves ahead cautiously.
DocFinder: 5061
https://www.nwfusion.com/research/2004/121304rfid.html?tw
10) Test: Novell Linux Desktop
Is NLD ready for the corporate desktop? Our answer is a qualified yes. Handling routine office chores using Open Office for word processing, Evolution for e-mail and Firefox for Web browsing works great. However, connecting to Windows networks still needs some work to become seamless.
DocFinder: 5062
https://www.nwfusion.com/reviews/2004/121304prodpeek.html?tw
11) Trusted chip assures endpoint integrity
Embedding trusted hardware into computing systems provides a reliable, secure way to determine endpoint integrity of clients, and protect networks against internal and external attack.
DocFinder: 5063
https://www.nwfusion.com/news/tech/2004/121304techupdate.html?tw
12) Identity introduction: Rolling out ID mgmt projects
Rolling out identity services projects requires careful steps and planning.
DocFinder: 5064
https://www.nwfusion.com/careers/2004/121304man.html?tw
13) Avaki bolsters data integration wares
Avaki last week released a new version of its flagship data integration software, which lets users run scheduled and ad hoc queries against distributed data sources.
DocFinder: 5065
https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2004/121304avaki.html?tw
14) Healthcare looks to biometrics
Healthcare organizations are turning to a high-tech means to combat fraud: fingerprint biometrics that capture the patient’s fingerprint to prove identity.
DocFinder: 5066
https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2004/121304biometrics.html?tw
15) Cogent expanding base through buys
Cogent Communications is continuing to gobble up acquisitions, with its focus now turning more to buying customers rather than physical assets.
DocFinder: 5067
https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2004/121304cogent.html?tw
16) Department of Interior ‘Net battle continues
Three years after a judge’s ruling in a class-action lawsuit unplugged the Department of Interior and its eight agencies from the Internet for four chaotic months, the department is still fighting to stay online, having averted its third ordered shutdown earlier this month.
DocFinder: 5068
https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2004/121304shutdown.html?tw
17) IBM tightening data synchronization
IBM this week is expected to announce a software bundle aimed at helping retailers and suppliers streamline the process of exchanging product information.
DocFinder: 5069
https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2004/121304ibmsynch.html?tw
18) Foundry adds oomph to data center appliances
Foundry Networks this week is introducing appliances and switches aimed at making Web server farms and data centers more secure and accessible.
DocFinder: 5070
https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2004/121304foundry.html?tw
19) Microsoft extends NT, Exchange support
Corporations that have yet to migrate or finish migrations from Windows NT were thrown a bone last week by Microsoft , which extended fee-based custom support for the expiring NT and Exchange 5.5 platforms.
DocFinder: 5071
https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2004/121304extensions.html?tw
20) Federal anti-spam law gets mixed results
A year after CAN-SPAM’s passage, unsolicited e-mail has not been reduced.
DocFinder: 5072
https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2004/121304canspam.html?tw
21) HP bulks up storage portfolio
HP last week introduced a mix of hardware and software designed to help customers align the value of their data with the resources used to store it.
DocFinder: 5073
https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2004/121304hpstorage.html?tw
22) Hardware virtualization called boon
Intel and Advanced Micro Devices are planning to add virtualization capabilities to their x86 processors during the next few years, a move experts say will lead to more flexible and faster virtual machines on low-cost, standards-based platforms.
DocFinder: 5074
https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2004/121304virtualization.html?tw
23) Threat center aims to thwart viruses
Hoping to help users take a proactive stance in hardening instant-messaging and peer-to-peer communications networks against viruses and worms, IMlogic last week opened a dedicated threat center to supply detection, analysis and thwarting of the work of hackers.
DocFinder: 5075
https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2004/121304imlogic.html?tw
24) Nortel system stops network threats
Nortel now can protect businesses from never-before-seen threats using new intrusion-detection and -prevention technology that monitors network traffic and blocks the traffic that seems malicious.
DocFinder: 5076
