Joseph Moran

Instant messaging, once considered a productivity-draining distraction, has started a second career as a powerful collaboration tool in businesses that require constant contact. While there’s no shortage of free instant messaging (IM) applications available, they don’t provide the features and secured communication that businesses need. Enterprise-grade IM systems like Microsoft’s Live Communications Server (LCS) and […]

In a way, a Windows PC can be a lot like a glass of tap water — everything may look normal on the surface, but a closer examination can reveal all sorts of hidden stuff inside. The water contaminants may be microbes or chemicals, but on a PC it’s malicious software that you need to […]

When a PC runs low on storage, a quick and easy way to add more is to use an external hard disk with a USB or Firewire interface. But while this works great for stand-alone systems, it’s not the best choice for a small business with multiple computers that need to access the storage. When […]

If you’ve read part one and part two of this three-part series, you already know that Windows Vista is on the horizon and that it sports a number of useful features for a small business. But even though Vista is still at least six months away, if you envision Microsoft’s new operating system in your […]

Prior to the existence of the Internet as we know it today, if you needed a secure connection between two systems on remote networks, your choices were essentially to use a dedicated high-speed circuit like a T1 line or to rely on a slow modem, with both options often getting quite expensive. Hamachi sports an […]

Considering how long it’s been since a new version of Windows came out, you would expect Vista to have more new features than you can shake a stick of RAM at, and you’d be right. Still chances are that you don’t want to run Vista just to have the latest and the greatest, but because […]

NetInfo 5.7 from Tsarfin Computing is a handy tool that aggregates a host of system- and Internet-based network utilities into a single easy-to-use package. Indeed, with 15 separate components, NetInfo contains more network tools than you can shake a NIC at. This includes Ping, Trace, Lookup, Whois, a port scanner and an e-mail address verification […]

Buffalo Technology’s 300GB LinkStation Multimedia Home Server is a great example of a new class of products that brings enterprise-style network attached storage (NAS) to the small business and home market. NAS servers like the LinkStation unit are basically stand-alone external hard drives that you access over a local area network. This product supports network […]

If your notebook’s 20, 40 or 60GB hard drive seems a bit snug lately, you may have considered adding more storage with a portable external hard drive. Maxtor is well known for it’s One Touch series of external hard drives, and the company has extended the line into the portable drive segment with the new […]

If you’ve been detecting a stale odor around the office lately, there’s a good chance it might be your operating system. Although there have been a couple of service packs and numerous minor updates for Windows XP, there hasn’t been an entirely new version of Windows since XP debuted way back in October 2001. That […]

It was physicist and author Arthur C. Clarke who once wrote, “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” This may help explain the design rationale behind Network Magic, a utility that aims to help users monitor, manage, and get the most out of their home and small office networks. The prior version of Network […]

With 30 Boxes, your calendar and appointments are always just a browser away.If you’re a highly organized type, chances are you rely on some kind of calendar and scheduling software. More specifically, though, you probably rely on the computer on which that software resides. Contrast that to 30 Boxes from 83 Degrees, a remarkably powerful, […]