Technology

Are You Using 802.1X? 239

Posted by Cliff from the solving-the-problems-of-802.11 dept.
WirelessMan asks "I work for a certain university in the US, and our IT department has just deployed IEEE 802.1x authentication for our wireless network. One of the benefits is that all users' sessions are encrypted using tumbling WEP keys. One of the (major) drawbacks is the 'newness' of 1x. As far as I can tell (Google, etc) there aren't a whole lot of places out there who have taken the plunge. Google it, or check out this brief description. Does the Slashdot community have any experience with 1x?"
Software

Complex Network Design Tools? 33

Posted by Cliff from the thinking-things-through dept.
I'm-Not-A-BOFH asks: "How do you do your large scale network design? I am currently designing a large enterprise network - and there is a ton of information to track and think about. I use AutoCAD, Visio and Cisco Configmaker (which sucks) and many other applications. I am looking for software specifically designed to help you design a network. What tools do you use - and what tools are out there that maybe are little known? How do you begin to manage network documentation when your hosts get into the thousands and your routers and routes into the hundreds? I am really just interested in the tools used to accomplish this - as all the tools I have been finding are just not adequate or well thought out. Please let me know what you think is invaluable to you when you design your systems."
Spam

Bayesian Filter Testing? 127

Posted by Cliff from the verifying-new-spam-fighting-techniques dept.
pu33y asks: "Since the publication of Paul Graham's A Plan For Spam, several programs that perform Bayesian filtering having become available, including CRM114 and Bogofilter. But missing is any serious testing to see how they perform in relation to themselves and to other, non-Bayesian filters.Searching Google has turned up nothing and when I asked Paul Graham, he was unaware of any such testing, as well. Can anyone point to any such testing or provide the results of their own personal experiences with Bayesian filters?"
Education

Knowledge by Ear? 36

Posted by Cliff from the food-for-your-mind dept.
jgercken asks: "I recently survived a 16-hour drive solo thanks to having downloaded 10+ hours of old Off the Hook shows, a 2600 sponsored radio program. It is so refreshing to hear news from a technically cognizant perspective. Is anyone aware of any similar programs or maybe sources of recorded lectures?"
Hardware

Building a PC Equal to XBox for the Same Price or Less? 129

Posted by Cliff from the a-challenge-to-the-readership dept.
Lonnold asks: "Every time the topic of Linux on the XBox and/or XBox modding comes up, some one always responds, 'I can build a better PC from scratch, why waste time modding a game console?' So that's my challenge, can anyone demonstrate that it is cheaper to build a PC comparable to the XBox specs?"
Wireless Networking

Regulatory Fees on the 802.11 Broadcast Spectrum? 295

Posted by Cliff from the YMMV-depending-on-locale dept.
Demerara asks: "I live in the Caribbean where I am putting together a business plan for a WISP on St. Lucia. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the St. Lucian National Telecomms Regulatory Commission here licenses and charges fees for 2.4Ghz spread spectrum applications. It's nearly US$400 to apply and, get this, nearly US$800 per link, per *year*. This blows the economics of a WISP out of the water. I may be reading the laws and regulations wrong but I don't think so. For example - they even charge an application fee and an annual license for the 'Family Band' walkie-talkies - look in the fees PDF. I am attempting to find out the following: what international agreements govern spectrum management; what international agreements govern licensing of WiFi or 802.11; and finally, are there any Slashdot readers out there who live in countries where 802.11 technology is also licensed or heavily regulated? The ITU website doesn't seem to answer these questions or, to be fair, I cannot come up with the keywords to find the answers. I'd love to hear from others who use or operate 802.11 under less than 'free' regulatory regimes."
Wireless Networking

Cooling your Access Point? 96

Posted by Cliff from the WLANs-dislike-heat-ya-know dept.
CmdrChillupa asks: "Summer's here in the US. I don't really mind the heat and I've lived my whole life without AC. Just gotten used to having fresh air instead of pre-processed. There's only one problem with this whole theory. After a long day at work I get home and go to do a little surfing on my PowerBook and my WLAN is down. I have a Siemens Speedstream 2624 Wireless Router that from all appearances dislikes the heat more than I do. I've gotten into a habit of holding it in front of a fan for a few minutes everyday when I get home, I thought the fridge might be a bit too humid for it's electronics. Anybody have any solutions aside from a alum-alloy-peltier-inter-cooled-turbo-charged-9 monstrosity?"
Hardware

Shipping Hardware Cross-Country? 106

Posted by Cliff from the which-shipment-co-do-you-trust dept.
ae0nflx asks: "I just graduated from High School and the computer that my parents gave me four years ago has finally died. I've decided to spend all that money that I've been hoarding for a few summers on a new G5. The problem lies in the fact that for college I'll be moving to the East Coast (Upstate New York), from the foggy shores of the San Francisco Bay. Does anyone have any insight on how to ship my brand new machine cross country? Cheap would be good. I'll be flying back in late August and I don't think that I'll be able to take her back with me because I'm assuming she'll be a little big for the overhead bin... I'm not sure if I can trust this to the Postal Service alone." It may not be the same as shipping the big iron, but when you trust your hardware to any shipping company, be it Federal Express, or UPS, you do have the expectations that what you ship, will get to where it's going, and hopefully get there in one piece. Which shipping companies would you recommend for this job? For those who have done this, what experiences have you had, and what suggestions can you pass on to ae0nflx?
Technology

Finding the Right Business Phone System? 70

Posted by Cliff from the operator!-I-need-an-exit dept.
KodaK asks: "I've recently been hired by a small-but-growing financial firm to be their systems administrator (Non ex transverso sed deorsum), now they want me to evaluate and recommend telephone systems. They want call reporting, and they also want visual call management. I've looked at Asterisk, and while I'd love to play with a system like that, I'm not skilled enough to put together what they want out of it in the timeframe they need, so I've been looking at PBX systems like the Alcatel OmniPCX Enterprise and Artisoft Televantage. However, I don't know enough about phone systems to effectively evaluate them. What should I be looking for? Are there really any differences, or are they all pretty much the same? The Artisoft is Windows 2000 based and that scares me from an availability standpoint (hey, VXWorks is /designed/ to be 5 nines, you can't say that about Windows). The Alcatel is Linux at the core, but is that really meaningful when there's other systems out there designed from the ground up to be telephone systems? Any suggestions? Any warnings? I'd appreciate any information or advice you can give me on any phone systems, not just the Alcatel and Artisoft. I want to make sure I'm making the right recommendation when there's a $30k plus investment involved."
Hardware

Reviews for PC ATX Cases? 53

Posted by Cliff from the have-at-it dept.
Jason asks: "Well, I am stumped. While there are hundreds of sites for PC case modding -- water cooling, titanium-alloy, pyramids, etc -- there appears to be no sites I can find dedicated to simply reviewing ATX cases. Case manufacturing seems to have come a long way, with many successful vendors (and imitators). Tom's Hardware, Anandtech, et al, might cover an especially significant case here or there -- but where is a general source of information for Luan-Li, Antec, Superflower, Enermax, CaseTek, Inwin, Cooler Master. Geez! They all have their varying price points and obvious style lineations... where can a geek go to get some comprehensive info?" If no specific site has such information, feel free to use this space to make your own reviews of ATX cases. What sites are the best for finding information and/or reviews on the latest PC cases?
Hardware

Keyboards for One Hand? 44

Posted by Cliff from the hunt-and-peck-for-cap'n-hook dept.
visibleman asks: "Having recently damaged my right hand to the point where it is unusable for a month and only for light tasks after that I was wondering whether anyone in the community knows of any devices which replace the keyboard but require the use of only one hand. I remember a long time ago seeing in magazines something that had a single button per finger and relied on the user learning key combinations to make up letters but I have not seen this for ages, does anyone know what I am talking about?" Ask Slashdot covered this topic, twice: in this article from 1999 and a followup from 2001. For those readers who find themselves in this same situation, what solutions have you found and what were your experiences, good or bad? Are there any new devices in this vein that deserve mention or are the older solutions still the best?
Software

Open Source Microsoft Exchange Replacements? 569

Posted by Cliff from the worthy-projects-requiring-dev-attention dept.
Carl Farrington asks: "Do you think you could try to raise public awareness of the importance for an open source replacement for Microsoft Exchange (Outlook/MAPI compatible for shared/public folders). Current offerings are SuSE Linux Groupware Server, Communigate Pro (Stalker Software), Samsung Contact (ex. HP OpenMail) all of which are not open source / free. Kroupware is in development, but there will be no Outlook Connector for it. otlkcon is in slow development as a possible connector for Kroupware. There is also OSER (Open Source Exchange Replacement) which again looks like it needs more help. Is there any chance of getting some people to back this stuff? It's so important and is probably the major problem facing Linux as viable replacements for Win2000 servers." While this seems to be a question that keeps popping up in one form or another, it's always worthwhile to come back and point out alternatives, in development, that might need your help to get off the ground and running. So, if you're looking for an alternative to Exchange, would you be willing to contribute some time to one of the projects listed above? If you've been using Unix as an Exchange replacement, what did you do and how well has it been working?
Privacy

Archiving Web Pages - Legal or Illegal? 102

Posted by Cliff from the if-google-and-wayback-can-do-it... dept.
Dyer asks: "I used to run several high-trafficked anonymous surfing sites and if I wasn't getting emailed by a lawyer telling me to block someone's site from being accessed I was being woken up at 2am with a telephone call from a crazy person yelling, sometimes swearing at me with the impression that my site copied theirs and it resided on my server, when in actuality it was being accessed by my server at that instant and being relayed to the user. This is my point, how do services like Archive.org and Google's cache get away with what they're doing? You can call their services whatever you like, but it doesn't change the fact that they are copying people's websites and saving them onto their servers for everyone to access."
Data Storage

Windows Migration Tool for Hierarchical Storage Management? 17

Posted by Cliff from the moving-files-who-leave-a-forwarding-address dept.
A not-so Anonymous Coward would like to bring this query to your attention: "The company I work for is in the process of implementing an Hierarchical Storage Management (HSM) solution for our ever-growing Departmental and Users data. I'm looking for a tool that has the functionality to move data from our NAS to a WIN2000 Server while leaving a link in the original location pointing to the new location. The WIN2000 server is using an HSM product to move the files from that server to tape after a period of time, to be recalled at a later point when required. If possible the tool would have the ability to filter files based on an exclude and an include list, file size, and last access date. Does such a tool exists for a WIN2000 environment or is there a better way to accomplish this?"
Patents

A Replacement Term for 'Intellectual Property'? 177

Posted by Cliff from the do-not-underestimate-the-power-of-language dept.
femto asks: "Every time I read the words 'intellectual property', I get peeved off. It is an oxymoron. A term loaded with invalid assumptions. To even use such words is an admission that intellect can be owned and controlled like a car, clothing or other thing made of atoms. Can anyone propose a replacement for the words 'Intellectual Property'? Something that implies intellect cannot be owned. Something that implies [what Jefferson once said]: 'He who lites his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.' Once we have this term, we need to get it accepted. Use it in publications. Cite these publications to get it in dictionaries. Get the term into everyday conversation and writing. So far, the best I have come up with is 'Intellectual Controls'. Can Slashdot come up with something better?"

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