Network

Mon, January 09, 2012 - Was it the philosopher George Santayana who said, "Those who don't remember the past are condemned to repeat it?" Did he offer any hints for those of us who want to repeat the past, especially the successes? We're beyond the teary elegies of 2011 and deep into making resolutions for 2012. If we're going to stand half a chance of creating something great this year, it only makes sense to pause and celebrate what went right in 2011.

Mon, December 19, 2011 - If you're tempted to think of Cisco's Unified Computing System (UCS) as just another blade server don't. In fact, if you just want a bunch of blades for your computer room, don't call Cisco Dell, HP, and IBM all offer simpler and more cost-effective options.

Tue, November 29, 2011 - When you set up a Wi-Fi network, whether using access points (base stations) from Apple or another vendor, you're usually playing a guessing game. Where should I put a base station to get the best coverage and performance? Or multiple base stations? Apple provides some tools to help, including the somewhat hidden Wi-Fi Diagnostics program (buried in /System/Library/CoreServices/), but using them requires some expertise, as well as keeping your eye on ever-changing signal-strength numbers. NetSpot bypasses the technical in favor of the visual. This free site-survey software is a remarkable aid in laying out even a small-home network, using a Mac laptop as your survey tool.

Mon, November 21, 2011 - The latest release of Cisco's WAN optimization product line -- Wide Area Application Services (WAAS) 4.4 -- proves that the company famous for routing packets can also shape, optimize and accelerate them.

Wed, November 02, 2011 - The minimum "best practice" backup arrangement for your vital data is to maintain three copies of the data: the original, a local backup, and a second backup offsite. With LaCie's CloudBox NAS device, you simply back up to the ethernet-connected unit, which then automatically backs up to LaCie's own online backup service. But easy as it is, CloudBox is also expensive, capacity-challenged, and slower than average.

Wed, October 19, 2011 - Five- and six-bay NAS cabinets from Iomega, Netgear, QNAP, Synology, and Thecus compete on speed, ease, and business features

Wed, February 02, 2011 - From troubleshooting DNS queries and misbehaving network applications to keeping your configurations and passwords organized, these free open source tools have you covered

Wed, January 12, 2011 - InfoWorld's 2011 Technology of the Year Awards recognize the best products at the forefront of today's top data center, desktop, mobile, and programming trends

Mon, December 06, 2010 - Documenting your network may sound like a mundane task, but it’s vitally important for IT managers to keep their network documentation up to date for a number of reasons.

Wed, October 20, 2010 - The Dell EqualLogic PS6010XVS with automated storage tiering leverages fast SAS or faster SSD storage depending on workload