Serious vulnerabilities in the Netgear NMS300 ProSafe network management system, an application used to discover, monitor and configure a wide range of network devices, can allow hackers to take control of the servers it's running on.The NMS300 can be installed on Windows XP, 7, 8, 10, as well as Windows Server 2003, 2008 and 2012. It allows network administrators to centrally manage network switches, routers, wireless access points, printers, network-attached storage systems, firewall appliances and other devices that support SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol).The software is free for managing up to 200 devices and provides an easy-to-use Web graphical interface that can be accessed remotely.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Cisco Systems' planned US$1.4 billion acquisition of Jasper Technologies could make it easier for enterprises to build businesses around services instead of products.
While the Internet of Things includes sensors and devices that enterprises can use to better run their operations and cut costs, it can also give them whole new business models.
Much of Jasper's business is connecting the products companies make to mobile networks. It sits between enterprises and mobile operators, doing the complicated work of tying IoT applications to network connections. Cisco builds a lot of the gear on the network side of that equation, plus higher-level smarts like analytics on the other end that can make IoT more effective and profitable. Bringing their capabilities together will simplify deployments that currently involve lots of different companies and pieces of software, the companies say.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Most of the excitement at Mobile World Congress this month will be about 5G, which won't officially exist until 2020. But vendors will also be showing off new ways to speed up the networks people are using now.That means more than 4G, because while LTE gets a lot of press, older services are more common than you might think. Just over half of the world's mobile subscriptions (51 percent) are for 2G service only, according to Tolaga Research analyst Phil Marshall. Almost one-third are limited to 3G, while only 15 percent are 4G. Even in 2020, only 48 percent of subscriptions will be for 4G.Some users are stuck on a slower network because they haven't upgraded to a faster phone, and some of those 2G-only subscriptions are for connected machines that don't need any more speed. But there are a lot of mobile users who could use a performance bump even before 5G comes along.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Google Fiber on Wednesday announced free gigabit Internet service to residents of selected public housing projects connected to its fiber optic service in U.S. cities.The program was launched at West Bluff, an affordable housing community in Kansas City, Mo., where 100 homes have been connected to Google Fiber. Across the Kansas City area, Google is now working with affordable housing providers to connect as many as nine properties that could reach more than 1,300 local families.Google described the program as an extension of its work with ConnectHome, an initiative of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Obama administration.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Cisco Systems has won the latest round against Arista Networks at a U.S. trade agency that could block importation of Arista products.
Arista violated three Cisco patents on networking technologies, Administrative Law Judge David Shaw of the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled on Tuesday. If the full Commission confirms that finding, the ruling could be bad news for Arista, a growing player in data-center networking.MORE ON NETWORK WORLD: 15 more useful Cisco sites
Cisco sued Arista in December 2014, alleging the Silicon Valley startup violated 14 patents in its Arista EOS operating system. The legal battle continues, heading toward two possible trials in federal court as well as continuing activity at the ITC. In a blog post Tuesday, Cisco General Counsel Mark Chandler said a ruling in a second ITC investigation is expected in April.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
Controversial technology that lets LTE networks use unlicensed spectrum could become a trusted part of the enterprise IT toolkit in a few years.So-called unlicensed LTE has come under fire ever since the news about it first broke more than a year ago. The charge: If mobile operators adapt their LTE networks to use frequencies that Wi-Fi depends on, Wi-Fi users will get squeezed out.ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD U.S. carriers stay tight-lipped on LTE-U deployments
The two sides are now working together on standard tests to tell if a given unlicensed LTE radio unfairly interferes with Wi-Fi. Meanwhile, Qualcomm, the biggest cheerleader for the new technology, just got permission to try it out at Verizon Wireless facilities in Oklahoma City and Raleigh, North Carolina, the Federal Communications Commission said Friday. The industry group Wi-Fi Forward promptly declared the FCC should closely monitor the experiments.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
This past summer, the White Rose Academies Trust in Leeds, England, kicked off a project that represented the first step on a journey to a software-defined networking platform -- and the move precipitated some career changes, both positive and negative, for the IT staff.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
Cisco Systems has released a new batch of security patches this week for flaws affecting a wide range of products, including for a critical vulnerability in its RV220W wireless network security firewalls.The RV220W vulnerability stems from insufficient input validation of HTTP requests sent to the firewall's Web-based management interface. This could allow remote unauthenticated attackers to send HTTP requests with SQL code in their headers that would bypass the authentication on the targeted devices and give attackers administrative privileges.Cisco has patched this vulnerability in the 1.0.7.2 firmware version for RV220W devices. Manual workarounds include disabling the remote management functionality or restricting it to specific IP addresses.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
With banks of big-screens high along three walls and a huge TV on the fourth, it could be a great spot to watch The Super Bowl. But when the Denver Broncos take on the Carolina Panthers on Feb. 7, the people in this room won't be concerned with touchdowns, running yards and time outs. They'll be analyzing gigabits, latency and capacity to make sure Verizon's cellular network holds up for fans.This is Verizon's Super Bowl command room -- a temporary, purpose-built nerve center in the shadow of Levi's Stadium that pulls in data from permanent and temporary base stations near the site of Super Bowl 50 and the fan area in downtown San Francisco.Organizers predict up to a million people will visit the Bay Area for The Super Bowl, so Verizon has added 46 small cells and 10 macro cells to augment its network.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
This column is available in a weekly newsletter called IT Best Practices. Click here to subscribe. If I brought up the term "mobility management" you'd probably think I was talking about BYOD and managing how workers can securely access applications and data via their smart phones. That's the aspect of mobility that IT usually has to deal with. But there's also an administrative aspect to mobility management that can be a real pain – and a big expense – for companies if it's not done well.I'm referring to the contract management aspect of company-provided mobile devices. Companies that pay for their employees' device contracts through expense reports are missing an opportunity to reduce administrative hassles and save quite a bit of money.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
There will be bonding. There will be splicing. And there will be firestopping.Yes, it’s time to roll up your sleeves, de-fog your goggles, climb your ladder and get ready for the 9th annual BICSI Cabling Skills Challenge next week in Orlando, where the Installer of the Year will be crowned and awarded a $5K prize (not to mention a towering trophy). This will definitely beat the NFL’s Pro Bowl as a competition fix during the seemingly endless lead-up to Super Bowl 50 on Feb. 7.The Installer of the Year needs to be versatile, good with his or her hands, and smart to boot. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Back in 1991There was quite a collection of new technology and plain-old interesting geeky stuff in 1991. Included were the public debut of the World Wide Web, the introduction of Linux and the discovery of Otzi the Iceman. There was the lithium-ion battery, PGP encryption, Apple’s PowerBook, Terminator 2 and more. When through, if you’d like to catch up on the first nine installments of this series, check out 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008 and 2007.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Big telcos including Verizon and AT&T have joined a Facebook-led project to build low-cost computing hardware, posing a fresh challenge for network vendors like Cisco and Juniper.The telcos have signed onto the Open Compute Project, a non-profit set up by Facebook in which end-user companies get together and design their own, no-frills hardware including servers, network and storage gear.The OCP members can include just the capabilities they need in a product, free of the "gratuitous differentiation" that bumps up prices in equipment from traditional vendors. They enlist low-cost manufacturers in Asia to produce the equipment.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Big telcos including Verizon and AT&T have joined a Facebook-led project to build low-cost computing hardware, posing a fresh challenge for network vendors like Cisco and Juniper.The telcos have signed onto the Open Compute Project, a non-profit set up by Facebook in which end-user companies get together and design their own, no-frills hardware including servers, network and storage gear.The OCP members can include just the capabilities they need in a product, free of the "gratuitous differentiation" that bumps up prices in equipment from traditional vendors. They enlist low-cost manufacturers in Asia to produce the equipment.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Juniper Networks this week entered into a definitive agreement to acquire BTI Systems, a provider of cloud and metro networking systems and software to content, cloud and service providers.Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.BTI will allow Juniper to accelerate delivery of packet optical transport systems for the data center interconnect and metro optical networking markets. The BTI products will be integrated with Juniper’s NorthStar Controller and network management features to enable end-to-end provisioning of services, said Jonathan Davidson, executive vice president and general manager, Juniper Development and Innovation, in this blog post.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Around two dozen U.S. government departments and federal agencies are being questioned by the U.S. Congress on whether they were using backdoored Juniper network security appliances.
In December, Juniper Networks announced that it had discovered unauthorized code added to ScreenOS, the operating system that runs on its NetScreen network firewalls. The rogue code, which remained undetected for 2 years or more, could have allowed remote attackers to gain administrative access to the vulnerable devices or to decrypt VPN connections.
The U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Oversight and Government Reform wants to determine the impact that this issue had on government organizations and how the affected organizations responded to the incident.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Two days before a ruling in a patent infringement case between the companies, Arista Networks is suing Cisco Systems for what it alleges are antitrust violations.Arista today filed a counterclaim to Cisco’s 13-month-old copyright infringement suit in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, for antitrust and unfair competition. Arista alleges Cisco conducts a “bait and switch” with its command line interface in which it claims it is an industry standard and then attempts to penalize competitors for emulating it.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here