Small Business Computing Staff

There’s a lot to say about the ServGate EdgeForce M30, but we’ll keep the introduction short: It’s a worthy entry in the small businesses “security appliance” category. This is what you get in a single, flashy purple 1U device: HTTP caching proxy Firewall in your choice of NAT, transparent or route mode DNS server DHCP […]

Apple Computer unwrapped an attractive gift for SMB design shops that rely on Mac-quality graphics capability. The sleek new iMac stores the entire computer in its flat-panel display. The Cupertino, Calif.-based computer maker introduced three new iMac desktop computers after a two-month delay with the IBM-built G5 processor. The company is taking orders now starting […]

I work at a small architectural firm. We deal with an enormous amount of files and are constantly running out of storage space. For this reason, I have been considering upgrading our server’s hard drive. I’m a bit apprehensive, though, since this is such a huge job with a high potential for problems. As an […]

Currently, I have two local area networks (LANs) set up in my house. In my living room, I have a cable modem that connects to a Linksys WRT54GS wireless router. The only system on this LAN is a notebook that connects to the router. In my office, I have a second LAN made up of […]

Chris Taylor, Telecommunications Manager, Metro Toronto Convention Centre had a serious problem. His mission critical Nortel “Companion” 900Mz phone system was no longer supported and he needed a replacement system double quick. With 2 million square feet of open exhibition space spread over two buildings, he needed a communications system that provided roaming and instant […]

Branch offices. Don’t you just hate them? They may be vital for business, but from a network administrator’s point of view they cause no end of problems. Here’s one of them: you have several (or hundreds of) branch offices, and the users in each need access to the same corporate data. And, naturally, all the […]

When managing storage and other network elements, you can easily end up with far too much of a good thing. Servers, routers, switches, desktops, firewalls, intrusion detection systems — each produces a wealth of information detailing every aspect of its performance, as well as the performance of related network elements. The result is that you […]

The U.S. Department of Energy and Silicon Graphics Inc. have partnered to develop new storage technology for data-intensive computing. The two will conduct research into “active storage,” an effort to shift computation and transformation of data from client computers to storage devices. Eng Lim Goh, SGI’s chief technology officer, claims the effort “holds the promise […]

If you manage a Web site that uses ActiveX controls, file downloads, pop-up windows or the Microsoft Java Virtual Machine (MSJVM), chances are you will need to tweak your code to deal with the new security features in Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2). As part of preparations for the final release of the service […]

Microsoft and Sender Policy Framework (SPF) author Meng Weng Wong have converged their respective e-mail authentication standards and called given in the name Sender ID. The new specification has been submitted to the Internet Engineering Task Force, an influential standard-setting body. Sender ID, like the pervious specifications SPF and Caller ID for E-Mail, is aimed […]

A new report from Gartner is spelling out the dangers that iPods, those nearly ubiquitous music players from Apple, and other portable jukeboxes can pose to computer security. Gartner’s “How to Tackle the Threat From Portable Storage Devices” report warns that digital music players, with their copious amounts of storage capacity — the Apple iPod […]

Firewalls and similar perimeter protections are, of course, designed to keep out those who are not authorized to access the network while allowing those with proper authorization easy access to the data they need. Naturally, distinguishing the one from the other is critical. That is the purpose of authentication, and usually involves the combination of […]