THE H-REPORT

News, Trends and Analysis

by Timothy Haight and Christine Hudgins-Bonafield

Domain Names Hotter Than Business Cards

Mike Walsh, the self-appointed keeper of domain name stats for the Internet, says the number of domain names topped 100,000 at the end of July, increasing by 10,000 in a two-week period. The president of Internet Info finds many small operations getting a domain name even before buying business cards. Which cities have the most domain names? New York, followed by San Francisco, San Jose, Austin, Seattle, San Diego, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles and Palo Alto.

Technical Support Question To End Up In Court?

When we asked Novell about supporting Microsoft products that take on traditional NetWare tasks, company officials said they would be supporting MS servers with NetWare clients. However, Novell evaded questions about Microsoft's beta directory services manager for NetWare and its new redirector for NDS on Windows95. The word we got was that questions such as whether Microsoft had to work with Novell to manage NetWare binderies and whether Novell would support the redirector need to be handled by Novell's legal department. But the legal department didn't return our phone calls.

Network General Reveals The Missing Link

Network management vendor Network General recently announced new Sniffer protocol analyzers for switched Ethernet, 100-Mb Fast Ethernet and ATM. Significantly missing from the lineup was an analyzer for 100VG-AnyLan. Network General high-speed n etwork product manager Chip Mesec said that the company simply doesn't see an adequate market developing for 100VG-AnyLan. A word to the wise, perhaps.

Bay Networks Gets Fishy

When Bay Networks moved to acquire Xylogics recently, Xylogics was quick to come out with "Clam" and "Marlin" ISDN access products. The acquisition is being touted as giving Xylogics a channel for its wares and giving Bay ISDN and remote access. We hate to dredge this up, but we wouldn't be surprised to see dolphins, sharks and other sea critters wend their way into these waters.

3Com Crazy Like A Fox?

Network computing passed another milestone of sorts recently, when 3Com Corp. made news buying the right to put its name on the former Candlestick Park, home of the San Francisco 49ers and San Francisco Giants, for at least five months. 3Com is the first high-tech company to make such a move, although 22 other parks across the U.S. have corporate names.

The move ignited a firestorm of criticism in the Bay Area. A columnist in the San Jose Mercury News suggested that the Golden Gate Bridge soon might be renamed "McDonald's Golden Arches." 3Com public affairs director David Abramson calls the move successful, however, citing extensive national and international TV coverage of football, the positive reaction of 3Com's distributors and VARs, and the opportunity to entertain visitors to 3Com's Santa Clara corporate headquarters in special facilities at 3Com Park. Abramson concedes that its traditional business-to-business customers don't need a stadium to remind them of 3Com, but he believes that by Super Bowl XXXIII, to be held at the park in 1999, the small-office, home-office market will be much more important to 3Com.

Wave Delivers The News

The concept of content metering got a shot in the arm late last summer with the announcement that New York-based Wave Systems Corp. has formed a business to deliver wire service content to corporate users via the Hughes Network Systems' DirecPC Se rvice. Business users would then be charged according to the number of articles they actually viewed. A typical fee would be about $1 per article. The service is being provided by the newly formed Network News Corp. It relies upon desktop software from Verity to filter content against a specific profile set by the user. The new service is slated for rollout this week. Charter wire server partners include Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News,

PR Newswire and Businesswire.

Statshots

NT To Rule, NetWare Big Loser

According to the Software Productivity Group's recent Corporate Application Development Market Intelligence Report, 450 IS managers and developers predict that their use of Windows NT will increase by 69 percent, while their use of NetWare will decline by 33 percent over the next two years. The various flavors of Unix generally will remain stable, while MVS, VM, OS/2 and VMS will post declines. SPG research director Dan Kara sees downsizers going to Unix and upsizers to NT. More info: (508) 366-3344.

Quick Bits

Laundry On A Chip?

Why isn't National Westminster's Mondex smartcard cash alternative catching on in the U.S.? Some insiders say the card's privacy might cause regulators to bar its use since money laundering and other illegal cash transfers would be harder to trace.

Net Users Not All Rich And Male

Women aren't as scarce on the Net as was originally supposed. Early results from an O'Reilly and Associates survey indicate that 34 percent of Internet users are women and that more than half have incomes below $50,000.

Something's Up With SSDS

When cable giant TCI bought a controlling interest in the United Video Satellite Group, it also got UVSG's controlling interest in SSDS--an Internet-savvy integrator. SSDS just hired marketeer Denis Yaro, SunSoft's Enterprise Management Products VP. Hmmm: Cable + Internet integration/security + management = worth watching.

If there is something we ought to k now, we welcome proposals for articles. Please e-mail us at H-REPORT@nwc.com.

October 15, 1995