Practical Technology

When I’m really, really bored at an airport, I’ll start looking around the local Wi-Fi networks with WireShark. This is an outstanding network protocol analyzer. Usually it’s used for checking out what’s really going on in your business network. Of course, if you know what you’re doing you can also use it on Wi-Fi to [...]

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It’s always been possible to get Linux desktops to work on Windows-based networks. I do it all the time. But, it’s not a job for an average Linux user or a Windows network administrator’s whose MCSE (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer) certification still has wet-ink. Now, though, Canonical, Ubuntu parent company, is partnering with Likewise Software [...]

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It’s Monday morning, everyone’s hammering the servers, and your customers want the information yesterday. Part of the remote branch IT blues is that it can be darn hard to get quick access to the data stored at the company’s central office when you need it Right Now. With Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2, Microsoft [...]

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Linux is used as a server all the time. From branch-offices using Linux and Samba to Google running, well everything, on Linux, it’s the operating system for choice for most businesses. Except that is, for small offices. There, Microsoft’s SBS (Small Business Server) is the server of choice. The Clear Foundation wants to change that [...]

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Chances are, everyone on your intranet has Gigabit Ethernet, with its 1,000 Mbps (Megabit per second) speeds. Or perhaps your laptop users are moving up to 802.11n Wi-Fi with 100Mbps throughput. That’s all great — but once your users hit the router, they’re all back to fighting over your far-more limited Internet connection (say, a [...]

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