A datacenter manager at Networld+Interop this week showed me one of the coolest little road warrior cable kits I've ever seen. He built it himself from off-the-shelf components, following instructions posted online by Michael Ossmann, a security administrator for Exempla Healthcare. The kit is ingenious in providing five data cables in one: ethernet cable, crossover ethernet cable, modem cable, null modem cable, and Cisco console cable. And you can build it yourself using just a few ordinary... Read the rest of entry >>
Posted @ 05/05/2005 2:17 AM By Mel Beckman
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I'm a firm believer in open-source network security tools, both because they tend to be ahead of commercial products in paving new security roads, and because the experience they give you with security management is valuable in making intelligent commericial product choices. Alas, until recently you've had to do all your own research when setting up such open-source tools as Etherreal, Nessus, and nMap. But now you can avoid a lot of trial and error testing thanks to the new O'Reilly tome... Read the rest of entry >>
Posted @ 05/02/2005 8:51 AM By Mel Beckman
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Voice-over-IP services are all the rage for home users wanting to cut the cord to their local exchange carrier. But these services have a sleeper application that network administrators should carefully investigate: the voice-processing core of your enterprise help desk system. I tested several VoIP products and found one, AT&T's CallVantage, whose combination of features make it near-perfect as the call nexus for an in-house help desk.... Read the rest of entry >>
Posted @ 05/02/2005 7:46 AM By Mel Beckman
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