The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency has revoked its November 2016 finding that Arista’s redesigned products don’t infringe a key Cisco patent -- as a result Cisco called on Arista to stop importing those products and recall others sold with redesigned software.The finding is the latest round in a high-stakes battle between Cisco and Arista over patents and copyrights that has been going on since 2014. In the summer of 2016 the US Trade Representative began an import ban as well as a cease and desist order covering Arista products imposed by the International Trade Commission in June where it ruled that Arista had infringed on a number of Cisco’s technology patents.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A few brave souls predict IoT standards will start to gel this year, but making all those connected things work together still looks like a long shot.Two years ago, some industry analysts cautiously suggested that a vast array of IoT standards would merge into just a few beginning in 2017. If the internet of things in late 2014 was a cacophony of discordant musicians tuning up, it’s now reached the point where a few virtuosos are playing the same tune. But there’s still a lot of sheet music getting passed around.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Praveen Akkiraju
Praveen Akkiraju
Software-Defined WAN vendor Viptela today announced industry veteran and former Cisco and Dell EMC executive Praveen Akkiraju will become its new CEO as the company looks to increase its presence in the rapidly-budding market.
+More on Network World: The new rulers of the cybersecurity realm: Automation, Analytics Artificial Intelligence+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
AT&T and Verizon are probably violating the Federal Communication Commission’s net neutrality rules by allowing third-parties to pay for subscribers’ data usage.That’s the determination FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler provided in a letter to several U.S. Senators on Wednesday, along with a report on the matter from The FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau. But Wheeler is set to step down as FCC Chair once President-elect Donald Trump takes the oath of office next Thursday.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
All too often SD-WAN and hybrid WAN are used interchangeably—mistakenly.
SD-WANs extend software-defined networking (SDN) technologies to the WAN. As with SDNs, SD-WANs build an “overlay” or a virtual abstraction of the underlying physical network that can then be reconfigured and optimized for the applications traveling across the overlay. It’s this property that allows SD-WANs to give one application a hub-and-spoke WAN configuration, while another application a meshed WAN configuration each with their own IP addressing spaces, traffic policies and more.
Hybrid WANs combine a mix of data services to interconnect geographically dispersed locations. A network that combines MPLS and carrier Ethernet services is a hybrid WAN, so too is a WAN that combines 4G and MPLS. When you have some sites connected via MPLS and others via IP VPNs, this too was a hybrid WAN. When you have sites connected to an MPLS backbone with a secondary Internet connection, you also have a hybrid WAN.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Many of you are on Wi-Fi, but this is salient to you. Amazon’s enormous sales site is marketing Cat 5 and Cat 6 Ethernet cable with aluminum conductors, as well as “plenum-rated” cable that bears no UL markings and is likely fraudulent. This comes after a run of apparently bogus Apple chargers and cables. Why do you care? Several reasons:
Some of the Ethernet cable sold uses either copper-coated or copper-mixed aluminum. Numerous specs call for the conductors to be solid copper. Why? Copper meets conductivity specs and won’t heat up under load.
Organizations using Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) to power remote Wi-Fi access points (quite common these days) risk having the cable catch fire due to overheating, or just melt and short—especially on long cable runs.
Plenum-rated cables are self-extinguishing. This means if you put a nail through one (we hope accidentally), then a jacket surrounding the cable prevents setting something in the surrounding area on fire.
If you add the two factors together, cable that heats up and jackets that don’t extinguish a possible flame, then the sprinklers turn on. We hope.
Whilst perusing the listings, I came across numerous enticing examples. Why enticing? Because their cost Continue reading
DARPA is kicking off a project to create a new way to enable U.S. troops working in remote areas around the world to securely send and receive sensitive information on their devices.The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the research arm of the Department of Defense, said it's working on a project that would use software and networking technology to securely share information on unsecured commercial and military networks.NEWSLETTERS: Get the latest tech news sent directly to your in-box
The agency scheduled a Proposer's Day for Jan. 31 to provide more information on the project.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The above headline on a post to Reddit piqued my interest this afternoon because it was in that site’s section devoted to system administration and those people know a bug when they encounter one.The Redditor elaborates: “I found a bug in my ASA today. Eth 0/2 was totally unusable and seemed ‘blocked.’ These Cisco bugs are really getting out of hand. I'm just glad I didn't open this port up to the web.”Scare quotes around blocked? Gratuitous mention of the web. I smelled a ruse before even opening the first of three pictures.No. 1, labeled “checking layer 1:”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A couple of years ago I wrote about an innovative company called EdgeConneX that was focused on improving the internet experience by extending the internet’s edge into new markets.While there are many content delivery networks and internet optimization companies focused on this task, EdgeConneX’s approach has been to push the actual edge of the internet into new markets. All major U.S. cities, such as Los Angeles, New York and Chicago, are internet edge locations. EdgeConneX has expanded the edge to next tier cities such as Miami, Seattle and San Diego. Its customers are the content providers, media companies and fiber providers that deliver services to consumers and businesses. The vendors that leverage EdgeConneX are able to offer high-quality and faster services at a lower cost compared with backhauling traffic to the next closest point. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
This is the eleventh year I’ve compiled this particular collection of trivia, which will come in handy someday if I’m ever on Jeopardy and the category is 1980s/1990s technology and related stuff. A big year for such stuff, 1992 saw the release of Linux under GNU, the sending of the first SMS message, IBM trotting out the ThinkPad and Simon, which was the first mobile phone to include PDA features (smartphone). The year also saw the launch of iconic videogame franchises Mario Kart and Mortal Kombat. And, perhaps worst of all, Microsoft unleashed upon the world the scourge that is PowerPoint. Here’s the full list:IBM debuts ThinkPad
Raymangold
Known for its minimalist design, the ThinkPad laptop was launched by IBM in 1992 and became a workplace staple for Big Blue before it sold the line to Lenovo in 2005. For years the ThinkPad was the only laptop allowed aboard the International Space Station and there are reportedly some still in use up there. I am typing on a practically new Earth-bound model right now.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Ever a social-media showman and tormenter of his competitors, T-Mobile CEO John Legere last night took to Twitter to lambaste Verizon’s decision to ding a volunteer fire company for $73,000 and offered to pick up that tab himself if necessary.
And we don’t even know if the ponies played a part.
Legere made his pledge on Twitter in response to yesterday’s Buzzblog post about a tiff between Verizon and the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company, which serves an island town of 3,000 in Virginia and is renowned for being caretakers of a herd of 150 wild horses, the Chincoteague Ponies, that has been the subject of a popular children’s book and movie. Legere’s tweet:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The Federal Trade Commission has filed a complaint against network equipment vendor D-Link saying inadequate security in the company’s wireless routers and Internet cameras left consumers open to o hackers and privacy violations.
+More on Network World: Top 10 Google searches of 2016 in pictures+
The FTC, in a complaint filed in the Northern District of California charged that “D-Link failed to take reasonable steps to secure its routers and Internet Protocol (IP) cameras, potentially compromising sensitive consumer information, including live video and audio feeds from D-Link IP cameras.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Residents of a small island community in Virginia are up in arms over Verizon insisting the town’s volunteer fire company pony up $73,000 to have telecommunications equipment moved off a parcel of land on which the department is building a new firehouse.At the center of the clash is the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company, which besides selflessly protecting the island’s 3,000 residents is also renowned for its stewardship over the Chincoteague Ponies, a herd of 150 wild horses that, well, has nothing to do with the Verizon dispute but is so interesting you should take a few minutes to check out this website.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
NordVPN gives you a private and fast path through the public Internet. All of your data is protected every step of the way using revolutionary 2048-bit SSL encryption even a supercomputer can’t crack. Access Hulu, Netflix, BBC, ITV, Sky, RaiTV and much more from anywhere in the world. Unmetered access for 6 simultaneous devices. You're sure to find dozens of good uses for a VPN. Take advantage of the current 72% off deal that makes all of this available to you for just $3.29/month (access deal here). This is a special deal available for a limited time.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
In 2016, I wrote several columns encouraging readers to begin taking steps to turn their networks into a platform for innovation. As I’ve said previously, forward-thinking companies view the network as an asset, rather than an expense, and leverage its full benefits to enable new services, new sources of revenue, and new ways to compete. But let’s be honest, agreeing in theory is one thing; getting started is something else altogether.So, in the spirit of New Year’s resolutions for 2017, let’s actually peel back the onion a bit. Over the next few columns, we’re going to roll up our sleeves and get to work.Let’s begin.3 steps to turn your network into a growth engine for your business
To make it as is simple as possible, here are three things you can do in 2017 to realize this sometimes daunting, but more-important-than-ever, network revitalization:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Intel has a disastrous history with smartphones. It fumbled a chance to be in Apple's first iPhone, and then quit making its Atom smartphone chip to focus on modems.
But the company is now set to ship a groundbreaking modem that will deliver data transfer rates many times faster than most wired internet connections.
The chipmaker will start shipping its first 5G modem for testing in the second half this year. Beyond mobile devices, the modem could also be used in autonomous cars, servers, base stations, networking equipment, drones, robots, and other internet-of-things devices.
In name, 5G is the successor to 4G in today's mobile devices, but it's significantly faster and more versatile. It will combine multiple wireless high-speed and low-bandwidth technologies and enable communications across an array of spectrum bands. New 5G networks are expected to be deployed starting in 2020.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Intel has a disastrous history with smartphones. It fumbled a chance to be in Apple's first iPhone, and then quit making its Atom smartphone chip to focus on modems.But the company is now set to ship a groundbreaking modem that will deliver data transfer rates many times faster than most wired internet connections.The chipmaker will start shipping its first 5G modem for testing in the second half this year. Beyond mobile devices, the modem could also be used in autonomous cars, servers, base stations, networking equipment, drones, robots, and other internet-of-things devices.In name, 5G is the successor to 4G in today's mobile devices, but it's significantly faster and more versatile. It will combine multiple wireless high-speed and low-bandwidth technologies and enable communications across an array of spectrum bands. New 5G networks are expected to be deployed starting in 2020.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
As consumers watch another wave of home IoT devices emerge from CES this week, they’ll still be waiting for one technology that can make all those products work together.The ZigBee Alliance, a group of more than 400 companies that make things with the ZigBee wireless protocol, made a bid to provide that unifying technology right before the annual consumer electronics gathering kicks off.On Tuesday, ZigBee announced Dotdot, which it calls a universal language for IoT. Even though ZigBee is best known as an open wireless communications protocol used in many home IoT products, Dotdot is intended for use with any wireless technology. It defines things like how devices tell each other what they are and what they can do, which is important for making different objects around a home do things together.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
There certainly was a ton of hype in Software Defined-WAN arena in 2016 but to be fair there was a lot of actual deployment of technology and services as well.In December Gartner wrote that spending on SD-WAN products will rise from $129 million in 2016 to $1.24 billion in 2020. “While WAN architectures and technologies tend to evolve at a very slow pace — perhaps a new generation every 10 to 15 years — the disruptions caused by the transformation to digital business models are driving adoption of SD-WAN at a pace that is unheard of in wide-area networking,” Gartner wrote.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
In November, researchers from cybersecurity firm Invincea reported a vulnerability that could have allowed hackers to infect Belkin WeMo smart plugs with malware. The flaw was located in a configuration protocol that worked over the local area network and didn't require any authentication.In 2015, when researchers from vulnerability intelligence firm Rapid7 analyzed nine Internet-connected baby monitors, they found hardcoded credentials in four of them. Those backdoor accounts provided administrative access to the devices over the local network.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here