HPE/Aruba is said to be planning to acquire the intellectual property of failing startup Rasa Networks within the next 2 to 4 weeks, according to sources close to the matter.The transaction could see between $5 million and $10 million change hands, the sources added, noting that it’s not a full buyout of the company, but merely a deal for Rasa’s IP and, potentially, one or two of the company’s data scientists.+ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: Don’t buy into hybrid cloud headache hype, GE’s cloud guru says + Meet a handheld server with a 13-terabyte SSDTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The last episode of Silicon Valley’s previous season began with the protagonist giving an uplifting talk about why the gang got into this mess in the first place – “to build cool s**t” – as an injured man endured a 127-hours-esque ordeal on a live video stream using software that they had designed.“The quality is great!” enthuses one.+ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: Catastrophic cyber attack on U.S. grid possible, but not likely + Secretive Intel quietly woos makers in ChinaTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
5G wireless is coming, but it has a lot of challenges to overcome, and we’re not going to be enjoying its blazing speeds until 2020 at least. But, at cable industry group CableLabs’ InformED Wireless event on Wednesday in New York, several experts helped provide new hints about the shape of the technology to come.One of the biggest hurdles, it seems, is physics – 5G is going to be a millimeter-wave technology, operating at a much higher frequency than existing Wi-Fi. That’s great if the goal is to move a lot of information quickly – 5G speeds could top 6Gbps in the field – but it raises the issue of range.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
5G wireless is coming, but it has a lot of challenges to overcome, and we’re not going to be enjoying its blazing speeds until 2020 at least. But, at cable industry group CableLabs’ InformED Wireless event on Wednesday in New York, several experts helped provide new hints about the shape of the technology to come.One of the biggest hurdles, it seems, is physics – 5G is going to be a millimeter-wave technology, operating at a much higher frequency than existing Wi-Fi. That’s great if the goal is to move a lot of information quickly – 5G speeds could top 6Gbps in the field – but it raises the issue of range.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Cable companies are already among the very biggest players in the wireless world, but analysts speaking at industry group CableLabs’ InformED Wireless event Wednesday in New York said that opportunities for further growth exist.Specifically, said Jonathan Chaplin of New Street Research, it’s a “matter of time” before the cable industry (presumably meaning either Comcast or TWC) moves more heavily into wireless, whether via an acquisition or some form of partnership with an existing player.+ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: Verizon to replace copper with fiber optic Internet in Boston + Google Fiber to be free for select affordable housing residents+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
An open-source project dedicated to cataloguing a huge range of computer security flaws has closed its doors as of Tuesday, according to an announcement on the Open-Source Vulnerability Database’s blog.The OSVDB, which was founded in 2002, was meant to be an independent repository for security information, allowing researchers to compare notes without oversight from large corporate software companies.One of its founders was HD Moore, a well-known hacker and security researcher, best known for his development of the Metasploit framework, a software suite widely used for penetration testing. Moore recently left security firm Rapid7 for a forthcoming venture capital firm that will focus on infosec startups.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
An open-source project dedicated to cataloguing a huge range of computer security flaws has closed its doors as of Tuesday, according to an announcement on the Open-Source Vulnerability Database’s blog.The OSVDB, which was founded in 2002, was meant to be an independent repository for security information, allowing researchers to compare notes without oversight from large corporate software companies.One of its founders was HD Moore, a well-known hacker and security researcher, best known for his development of the Metasploit framework, a software suite widely used for penetration testing. Moore recently left security firm Rapid7 for a forthcoming venture capital firm that will focus on infosec startups.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Vivaldi springs forthWhile the trend in modern browsers is to provide as streamlined an experience as possible, with simplicity and ease of use as the guiding principles, there are plenty of users who want powerful, rich feature sets, instead. The team behind Vivaldi, including Opera browser co-creator Jon von Tetzchner, is hoping that their new browser’s blend of throwback functionality and modern tech will catch on. You can download Vivaldi here on Macs, Windows or Linux, but first check out the highlights in our slideshow.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Networking hardware vendor Brocade announced today that it would add a wireless infrastructure club to its bag in the form of Ruckus Wireless, as part of a deal with a net value of $1.2 billion.The objective, according to Brocade’s public statement, is to broaden the company’s enterprise networking stable and boost profits, since wireless is a growth area. Like any merger of this type, the idea seems to be to offer a unitary set of products and services.+ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: HTTP compression continues to put encrypted communications at risk + 12 powerful Windows 10 tools that hardcore PC enthusiasts will loveTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Office pranksI know, I know – that jerk from sales deserves it. That snippy attitude last time you showed up to fix his “slowdown problem,” which was obviously just him having like 150 Chrome windows open at once. Still, as tempting as it might be, you can’t just take revenge on the guy’s computer. Please, just go and read something else now. You’ll feel like a better person.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden opened the Free Software Foundation's LibrePlanet 2016 conference on Saturday with a discussion of free software, privacy and security, speaking via video conference from Russia.Snowden credited free software for his ability to help disclose the U.S. government's far-reaching surveillance projects – drawing one of several enthusiastic rounds of applause from the crowd in an MIT lecture hall.+ ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: Pwn2Own contest highlights renewed hacker focus on kernel issues + Apple engineers could walk away from FBI’s iPhone demandsTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden opened the Free Software Foundation's LibrePlanet 2016 conference on Saturday with a discussion of free software, privacy and security, speaking via video conference from Russia.Snowden credited free software for his ability to help disclose the U.S. government's far-reaching surveillance projects – drawing one of several enthusiastic rounds of applause from the crowd in an MIT lecture hall.+ ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: Pwn2Own contest highlights renewed hacker focus on kernel issues + Apple engineers could walk away from FBI’s iPhone demandsTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The winners in a broadband industry heavily shaped by the Telecommunications Act of 1996 celebrated publicly this week, as February 8 marked the 20-year anniversary of the law taking effect.The Act – a sweeping rewrite of America’s 60+ year old laws governing phone service, media ownership, and more – substantially deregulated the telecom and media industries, causing large-scale mergers and a much more centralized landscape.+ ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: Cisco boosts, broadens Catalyst switches | US government wants to sharply increase spending on cybersecurity +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The FCC last week granted Verizon and Qualcomm permission to conduct limited tests of LTE-U technology in Raleigh, North Carolina and Oklahoma City, ahead of a planned summit meeting next week.The commission’s grant of a “special temporary authority,” or STA, will allow Qualcomm to perform performance testing in those two areas through the end of June 2016, according to the official document.+ MORE: LTE-U: A quick explainer | U.S. carriers stay tight-lipped on LTE-U deployments +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Comcast announced today that Atlanta and Nashville would be its first two markets to offer DOCSIS 3.1 technology, in “early 2016,” and that Chicago, Detroit and Miami would join them in the second half of the year.DOCSIS 3.1 is a new wired cable Internet standard, which gives Comcast the ability to offer gigabit speeds over existing copper cable. The latest version of the standard uses smaller subcarrier channels that use considerably less bandwidth than those of DOCSIS 3.0, bonding those subchannels together for greater efficiency. The company said that it tested the technology last month in its home market of Philadelphia.+ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: 'Big bets' cost Google parent Alphabet $3.6 billion in losses last year + Microsoft starts recommended update roll-out for Windows 10To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A T-Mobile service called Binge On that allows subscribers to consume as much data as they want while streaming video from selected providers violates Net neutrality rules, according to a published analysis from Stanford University legal scholar Barbara van Schewick.Net neutrality’s core tenet is that service providers shouldn’t be allowed to discriminate between different types of traffic they’re asked to carry. By offering some video services – including Netflix, Hulu and HBO – and not others as “free” streaming options, and not counting mobile data consumed from those services toward a user’s monthly cap, T-Mobile is essentially favoring some kinds of video content over others, van Schewick wrote.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
America’s big four wireless service providers are enthusiastic about the prospect of delivering data over unlicensed frequencies via LTE-U, but they’re playing their cards very close to their chests when it comes to specific plans.LTE-U, which is a wireless protocol designed to let carriers use their LTE signals over the same unlicensed frequencies as Wi-Fi, is a controversial technology. Advocates, which include the wireless carriers, insist that coexistence features built into the standard will allow it to use the same airwaves as Wi-Fi without interference. Critics say that independent testing shows that LTE-U could drown out Wi-Fi signals when the two conflict.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Little Rock, Tampa, St. Louis, Orlando and Denver were the five American cities most affected by malware on a per-capita basis in 2015, according to a study released today by Enigma Software.Those five municipalities suffered malware infection rates, the company said, roughly eight or nine times the national average for 2015. Little Rock’s rate was 1,412% above the U.S. average, Tampa’s 842%, while the other three all had rates around 650% of the overall mean.+ ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: Hyatt hackers hit payment processing systems, scooped cards used at 250 locations + State CIOs agenda targets cybersecurity + To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The DOCSIS 3.1 cable Internet standard just moved a little bit closer to American homes, with the news today that industry research group CableLabs has certified five new manufacturers of DOCSIS 3.1 modems.Askey, Castlenet, Netgear, Technicolor and Ubee Interactive were all approved by CableLabs to manufacture DOCSIS 3.1 hardware, the group said in its announcement, which was issued less than a month after Comcast successfully tested a modem using the new technology in a consumer environment. CableLabs credited “highly effective collaboration” from vendors for the quick turn-around.+ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: Microsoft: Upgrade to IE11 even if you dump our browser + Alternative education can help close IT skills gapTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Leverett, Mass., will improve its existing fiber-optic network by the start of the new year, boosting peak speeds from one gigabit to two gigabits, and dropping the price from $45 per month to $40, according to a report in the local Recorder newspaper.A small town in central Massachusetts, just north of Amherst, Leverett has fewer than 2,000 residents, making it among the smallest in the country with its own municipal gigabit fiber network.+ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: Dell maneuvers toward EMC takeover with no rivals in sight + F5 Networks brings back retired CEO after successor resigns over "personal conduct"To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Jon Gold