Cameron Sturdevant

Laying aside privacy and compatibility concerns, what if a paramedic arriving on the scene of an accident automatically had immediate access to the medical history of an unconscious victim? Hewlett-Packards Cool Town concept-turned-demo-center in Palo Alto, Calif., is an interesting look into the near future, which could very well include this scenario. Cool Town is […]

IT managers can choose among a fast-growing crop of capable Gigabit-speed firewall/VPN appliances that push the price and manageability envelope. One thing that became clear during eWeek Labs tests of two products in this category is that, increasingly, “speeds and feeds,” or the sheer ability of a firewall/virtual private network device to handle traffic, will […]

Phoneboy.com is a handy Web site for those who administer Check Points Check Point FireWall-1 firewalls. Visitors can submit questions and browse through an eclectic mix of FAQs and documents. Interestingly, the site is not run by Check Point, although phoneboy.com does work to reach the companys technical support team. I found all sorts of […]

Internet traffic monitors arent new, but the relaunch of internettrafficreport.com, a free service provided by Opnix, provides a neat peek at worldwide Web performance. Although the free Web site is a hook for the companys Orbit 1000 performance-monitoring tool, which is still in beta, I found that the sites ping-based reports of router performance in […]

Finally acknowledging that businesses use operating systems other than Windows and might even use Unix, Microsoft Corp. has taken some baby steps toward providing full-fledged system management with MOM 2000. Microsoft Operations Manager is Microsofts first Windows-only tool to make the jump to Unix, although that support is only rudimentary. (Microsoft is leaving it to […]

Analytical Engines Inc.s lightning-fast NetRule 4.0 network modeling and performance simulation tool is a good guide for planning network growth. Senior IT executives and network planners should put this product in their tool kits before spending one more dollar to add capacity to the network. NetRule, like competitors such as Opnet Technologies Inc.s IT Guru […]

Until now, it hasnt been feasible to think of using project-based inventory gathering hardware and software information to answer simple questions such as “Who needs an operating system patch to handle the latest version of XYZ software?” With the release earlier this year of AssetMetrix Inc.s AssetMetrix service and a nearly identical service from Tally […]

Using a clever mix of technology and proven expertise, both Tally Systems Corp.s WebCensus and AssetMetrix Inc.s namesake product proved to be advanced software and hardware inventory managers during head-to-head tests conducted at eWeek Labs. But look out: both products require a large amount of risky “click yes to enable download” activity. Tallys WebCensus service, […]

I just bought a new cell phone and i hope it lasts for a long time because, as near as I can tell, it doesnt have any technology that will allow it to act as a GPS locator. Radio-tracking collars that enable scientists to follow the movements of animals are fine for use on endangered […]

Performance testing should be objective, but when vested interests design the setting, beware of latent bias. eWeek Labs spent an extra week testing Cisco Systems Inc.s Catalyst 2950T-24 and 3550-12T switches to figure out why our performance tests showed slightly different results—more packet loss across a wider range of packet sizes—than those obtained at Ciscos […]

As gigabit ethernet becomes a cost-effective means of connecting high-performance servers to high-speed networks across todays ubiquitous Category 5 copper cable, Cisco Systems Inc. has finally made its first foray into this promising new arena. Actually, Cisco has taken two steps into this market: IT managers of midsize sites will find the companys fixed-configuration Catalyst […]

INTEROPERABILITY A summit on interoperability that the Continental Automated Buildings Association held last month may point the way to greater success in building high-bandwidth infrastructure into homes. Much like the electrical code changes in the 1970s mandated a drastic increase in the number and placement of electrical outlets so that today one who lives in […]