network

The Conficker/Downadup worm has reportedly found its way onto the British government's IT system, joining millions of others who have fallen victim to it. An email sent to MPs, lords and their staff revealed that parliament's IT network appears to ... be completely unsecured. The Conficker/Downadup worm has been in circulation since November 2008 and a patch is available from Microsoft that fixes it. The fact that parliament's systems have become infected indicates that their anti-virus software, if there is any, hasn't been updated since last year and could be vulnerable to other attacks. ... (view more)

A telecommunications firm in Great Britain has received full regulatory permission to build a national fiber-optic network for broadband. It could mean speeds of up to 100 Mbps for those in cities, with rural dwellers left behind. The company ... concerned, British Telecom (BT), was once the monopoly provider of phone services in the country. Today it competes with others, but still controls the phone network itself, meaning phone users must either rent a line from BT or use a cable service. At the moment the fastest cable service belongs to Virgin Cable, which has just launched a premium 50Mbps ... (view more)

Sprint's promotion of super-speed wireless Internet has taken an important step with the release of a plug-in modem that can work with WiMAX and the slower but more widespread 3G network. Xohm, the name for its service employing the small but ... growing WiMax wireless network, is also dubbed 4G (following on from the 3G network used by devices such as the iPhone) and aims to provide wireless data speeds comparable to fixed-line broadband. Like the 3G network, users don't have to be near a WiFi 'hotspot' (such as a cafe or airport): the data comes over the mobile phone network. At the moment, the ... (view more)

Softperfect Network Scanner SoftPerfect Network Scanner is a free multi-threaded IP, NetBIOS and SNMP scanner with a modern interface and several advanced features. It is intended for both system administrators and general users who are interested ... in computer security. http://www.softperfect.com Vista Services Optimizer Vista Services Optimizer is a tweaking utility that can improve your Windows Vista performance and security by tweaking Windows services in an automatic and a very safe way. Vista Services Optimizer also enables you to tweak Windows Vista services manually. http:// ... (view more)

Network Scanner This is a multi-threaded IP, SNMP and NetBIOS scanner with a modern interface and several advanced features. It is intended for both system administrators and general users who are interested in computer security. The program pings ... computers, scans for listening TCP ports and displays which types of resources are shared on the network (including system and hidden). http://www.softperfect.com Networx Networx is a simple, yet powerful utility for measuring your bandwidth usage and the speed of all kinds of wired and wireless network connections. The program provides the ability ... (view more)

Pilfius PiLfIuS! is a program that turns the commands you speak into your microphone or headset into keystrokes. Command Lists are fully customizable, meaning that you no longer will have to remember a myriad of key combinations to perform an ... action, and won't have to take your hands off your mouse to do so. As an example, to order one of your fire-teams to open fire in Operation Flashpoint (tm), you would have to take your hands off the controls and hit the keys 9-2-3-1 in order, and without typos. This program helps you avoid the distraction! http://www.pilfius.com.ar Plax Network Suite ... (view more)

Apple is facing a second lawsuit over poor iPhone performance. This time, the company faces complaints that it sold more handsets than its 3G network could cope with. You may remember that many of the recent reports of dropped calls (caused by ... reception problems on the 3G network) came from California. It's therefore not a major surprise that the new legal action comes from a San Diego resident, William Gillis. He alleges that the new iPhone demands too much power from 3G networks, to the point that AT ... (view more)

Three French journalists have been booted from a major security conference amid claims they were able to hack the laptops being used by fellow reporters. It's particularly embarrassing for those reporters, many of whom write for Global Security Mag, ... an official sponsor of the Black Hat Las Vegas event. Only one of the hackers, Mark Brami, has spoken out; though he blamed colleague Mauro Israel for the 'attack', he said it was meant as a prank. The men involved reportedly told organisers they were attempting to raise the issue of privacy risks among people using public Internet connections. ... (view more)

After making intense efforts to re-secure the city's computer network after a disgruntled employee took control of the system, San Francisco officials have made a big mistake by putting around 150 passwords into the public record. The blunder comes ... as part of an ongoing criminal action against Terry Childs, a system administrator who, apparently infuriated by the work practices of his colleagues, put a series of passwords on the entire system to stop anyone else getting access. He then refused to hand over the details even under threat of imprisonment; after being placed on remand with bail ... (view more)

Network management is easy. No really, it is. Or at least, it is when you use a new software package from PacketTrap called pt360 Tool Suite Free/Pro (pt360). You see, the folks over at PacketTrap.com realize that running a network can be a painful, ... complex affair that often involves utilizing dozens of tools to diagnose a network problem -- and few ever use a graphical user interface (GUI). In other words, diagnosing a network problem relies on reading long-winded, boring, ugly, jargon-filled text. That's where PacketTrap's pt360 is different. pt360 works just like a dashboard on a car: or ... (view more)