Francis Chu

The beginning of the new year brings much-needed new security technology for the Wireless LAN industry. New products and software enhancements using WPA (WiFi Protected Access) will be announced this quarter, which will address the security shortcomings of WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy). WEP was developed to make wireless LANs as secure as wired ones. However, […]

Iomegas latest P415 series, released late last year, has the highest-capacity NAS devices Iomega offers. I tested the $6,000 Windows-powered P415m, which comes with 720GB of storage in a 1U (1.75-inch) rack-mount form factor with four 180GB Fast Ultra ATA-100 hard drives. (The P415 devices run on Microsofts Server Appliance Kit or Unix.) The unit […]

Dell Computer Corp.s first entry into the server blade market, the PowerEdge 1655MC system, comes bundled with robust management and provisioning tools packed into a compact 3U (5.25-inch) form factor. Sites with minimal real estate that are looking for ultradense blade servers to tackle Tier 1 applications should consider the PowerEdge 1655MC. The PowerEdge 1655MC […]

Microsoft Corp.s new group policy management console tool, which will be downloadable from Microsoft.com in conjunction with the release of Windows .Net Server 2003, will make it much easier for administrators to roll out and manage Group Policy. Although some of the tools new features apply only to .Net systems and domains, eWeek Labs tests […]

With the sluggish economy, many companies are striving to cut costs and streamline their infrastructure. IT managers cannot afford to waste dollars on redundant data centers and management personnel, or on obsolete equipment. Server consolidation initiatives are an increasingly popular way to get a leash on runaway IT expenditures. Server systems that reside in crowded […]

Instant messaging is a powerful communications and collaboration tool, but the mediums many administrative and security problems rightly give IT departments pause about deployment in the enterprise. With the appropriate tools and standards, however, IMs benefits can outweigh its drawbacks. Enterprise IM is still an emerging market, but there are already numerous tools available that […]

Version 3.0 of WiredRed Software Inc.s E/pop Enterprise Instant Messaging software suite provides a secured end-to-end IM service for employees and business partners. The updated E/pop system, released this month, has a server-to-client architecture, but companies can also run the system in peer-to-peer mode. The E/pop server and client provide text-based IM, chat, voice over […]

Version 3.0 of Packeteer Inc.s AppCelera ICX-95 content acceleration appliance gains software-based management and content compression capabilities and upgraded hardware, offering sites a robust, easy-to-use, one-box system that enhances Web application performance. Simply put, the AppCelera ICX-95 makes Web pages load faster for users with slow Internet connections. eWeek Labs tests showed that this appliance […]

Linksys Etherfast Network Attached Storage EFG80 box is good news for workgroups and branch offices seeking inexpensive storage. The $599 EFG80 workgroup NAS device, which shipped in October, is loaded with 80GB of storage capacity and a built-in print server. It can scale with an additional hard drive bay (see photo, below). The EFG80 was […]

Zeus Technology Inc.s latest Zeus Load Balancer, Version 1.6, offers businesses of any size a robust, flexible server load balancing system. Zeus Load Balancer 1.6, which began shipping in October, gains advanced traffic management features and an easy-to-use administration interface. The software works on any computer running a Unix-based operating system, including Linux, Solaris or […]