Practical Technology

I think Intel’s Thunderbolt technology with its 10Gbps (Gigabit per second) speeds and support for both for data transfer and displays sounds wonderful. And, yes, I like the idea of cutting down the number of wires coming out of my entertainment center and computers with Thunderbolt. But, really wouldn’t you rather have no wires at [...]

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Though Microsoft doesn’t make a big deal of Windows 7′s many networking improvements and new features, they offer a fine reason to upgrade from XP. There used to be many reasons to skip migrating to Windows 7; but as the operating system matures and XP ages, Windows 7 is becoming a worthwhile update. For starters, [...]

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When I’m called in to consult on network traffic management, I usually end up recommending heavy-duty, network traffic solutions such as Cisco’s IOS NetFlow, F5 Network’s BIG-IP, or Juniper’s Network and Security Manager (NSM). These are serious tools for serious networks. But, if you’re using Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 and all you [...]

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Cisco doesn’t want to be just the number one networking hardware company for the enterprise, it also, through its Linksys brand, wants to be the number one network equipment company for your small-office and home (SOHO). So, it is that Cisco unveiled today, January 19th, 2011, it’s latest top-of-the-line Wi-Fi home router, the Linksys E4200 [...]

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The Internet’s IPv4 clock keeps ticking down. As Robert Cannon, the FCC’s senior counsel for Internet law, observed recently, “The original [Internet] address space, IPv4, is nearly exhausted.” He’s so right. Still, I’ll bet most of you are still scared to death of having to learn IPv6, never mind actually deploying it. I know I [...]

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