Feature: The Cheapskate's Guide To IT Tools By Mike DiMaria
You don't always need the most expensive software to find happiness. There are dozens of cheap or free utilities and programs that our tech editors and readers can't live without. Here are our picks.
Feature: Reader Cheapware Picks
Looking for more of the best shareware and freeware IT admin tools? Look no further than your fellow Network Computing readers, who have submitted their favorite IP scanners, spam blockers, text editors and protocol analyzers.
Feature: Route Optimization By Peter Morrissey
No centralized management or control on the Internet means your critical
traffic can hit some serious potholes. But there are ways to ensure a
smoother trip. Route optimizers maximize performance, help honor usage
thresholds and ensure your providers are living up to their SLAs.
Review: Route Optimizers By Peter Morrissey
The four devices we tested were up to the task of getting the most out
of multiple ISP connections, despite using two different methods.
Whether you choose a BGP-based optimizer or the simpler DNS device,
you'll be on the right road to managing your multiple ISP connections.
Workshops
Workshop: Time is Right for Database Encryption By Don MacVittie
Are data-privacy regulations and dreams about stolen employee data keeping you up at night? It may be time to protect your data where it lives--in your database.
Interactive Buyer's Guide: Voice Gateways
Placing and routing voice calls over a LAN/WAN can be confusing. To help with your product selection, we highlight the differences in various signaling protocols such as H.323, SIP and MGCP, the supported protocols for Voice over LAN/WAN as well as the available LAN and WAN connections.
Sneak Previews
PalmOne's Tungsten PDAs By Richard Hoffman
With three new offerings, perhaps PalmOne is hoping that if your organization finds one PDA too big and another too small, the third might be just right.
Stoneware's webNetwork 4.0q By Sean Doherty
Give local and remote users a single secure point of access for all Web
content and applications with webNetwork.
F5 Networks' FirePass Controller By Hugh Smith with Scott Thomas and Newman Chan
F5's appliance lets mobile users establish a secure, clientless remote
connection to an intranet through a Web browser.
Departments
Career Coach Edited by Lorna Garey
This edition: Dealing with an egotistical micromanager and posting resumes at "Friendster"?
Quick Takes
Web app performance management; scalable switches; and mobile employee tracking.
Letters
"Life Time's liaison should have provided more feedback during development." --Tommy (Hong) Gu
Last Mile Edited by Bradley F. Shimmin and David Joachim
This Edition: Little-known uses for Virginia Tech's 1,100-node Apple G5
supercomputer; an imaginary online girlfriend; and the 56K modem
emulator.
Columns
Down to Business: SCO's House of Suits By Rob Preston
It seems a tad shallow to base two-thirds of your company's growth strategy on suing customers and other vendors.
BuzzCut: Sun Dousing SPARC? By Steven J. Schuchart, Jr.
Time may be up for the SPARC processor, according to Sun.
BuzzCut: FUDBusters By Bradley F. Shimmin
The New York Times reveals Google-Microsoft merger talks.
The IT Agenda: Security: Set It, Don't Forget It By Jonathan Feldman
Security vendors spend buckets of money on sophisticated marketing
programs, and we buy into the hype because it's what we want to hear.
Industry Insights: Spam Rules By Mike Lee
Most users can't identify legitimate senders, so they're spammed if they
do respond and spammed if they don't.
BuzzCut: All Roads Lead to VoIP By Peter Morrissey
Despite the glitches, don't dismiss Voice over IP or even Cisco's
offering just yet.
BuzzCut: Hackers of the World, Unite! By Michael J. DeMaria
Good luck getting people to listen to hackers when the press uses the
word to describe "online supervillains."
REPORTS
Analyize In-Line NAC strategies and products.
ANALYTICS Plan and design your enterprise blade server deployments
InformationWeek U.S. IT Salary Survey 2008
Salaries for business technology professionals are falling. Here's what you need to know in order to make good hiring decisions and personal career choices. Download Today
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