IT Help 4 IT Nerds: September 2010

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Feature: There is no Plan B: why the IPv4-to-IPv6 transition will be ugly

Feature: There is no Plan B: why the IPv4-to-IPv6 transition will be ugly: "

Twenty years ago, the fastest Internet backbone links were 1.5Mbps. Today we argue whether that's a fast enough minimum to connect home users. In 1993, 1.3 million machines were connected to the Internet. By this past summer, that number had risen to 769 million— and this only counts systems that have DNS names. The notion of a computer that is not connected to the Internet is patently absurd these days.

But all of this rapid progress is going to slow in the next few years. The Internet will soon be sailing in very rough seas, as it's about to run out of addresses, needing to be gutted and reconfigured for continued growth in the second half of the 2010s and beyond. Originally, the idea was that this upgrade would happen quietly in the background, but over the past few years, it has become clear that the change from the current Internet Protocol version 4, which is quickly running out of addresses, to the new version 6 will be quite a messy affair.

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Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Microsoft Security Essentials now provides free antivirus protection for Small Businesses

Microsoft Security Essentials now provides free antivirus protection for Small Businesses: "

There are a lot of great, free antivirus programs for Windows -- as long as you're using those programs at home. When it comes to options for the workplace, there's really nothing available for free.

At least, not until now. Starting in October, Microsoft is opening up the licensing for Security Essentials and will allow small businesses up to 10 users to utilize one of the top-rated, free antivirus apps on their systems. Dollar-wise, you're not talking about a gigantic savings -- 10 users would run around $270 per year for the customers I support who use NOD32 -- but it all adds up.

Still, that's money you could be spending elsewhere -- like a few small hardware upgrades or faster Internet access. Anyway you slice it, free MSE for your small business computers is great news!

Microsoft Security Essentials now provides free antivirus protection for Small Businesses originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 22 Sep 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Monday, September 6, 2010

Netgear offers 500Mbps powerline networking via next-gen standard

Netgear offers 500Mbps powerline networking via next-gen standard: "

Even as the IEEE P1901 working group was set to meet this week to recommend its draft standard for broadband over powerline networks for official status, Netgear announced its line of Powerline AV 500 adapters that incorporate the HomePlug-compatible flavor of the standard. The new devices theoretically promise up to gigabit Ethernet speeds over home electrical wiring, and are the first to incorporate the newest standard.

The Powerline AV 500 comes in either standard or power pass-through versions, and are available in two-adapter 'kits' to set up a source and destination point for your network. While hardcore geeks won't settle for anything less than running Cat 6 cable all throughout the house, powerline adapters have the benefit of being able to utilize existing electrical wiring to move data from point to point, and could be convenient for homes or apartments where running new cable would be impractical, prohibitively expensive, or just not allowed by your landlord.

While the IEEE P1901 standard promises speeds up to 1Gbps, no powerline adapters come close to the top theoretical speeds (and to be fair, neither does most wireless networking hardware). Still, it can provide greater and more consistent bandwidth for applications like networked AV equipment or gaming consoles compared to increasingly crowded home WiFi networks.

'Almost every new home entertainment device today can be connected to the Internet. This puts tremendous demand on the home network,' Netgear product manager Chris Geisersaid in a statement. The new Powerline adapters are up to 2.5 times faster than competing products and provide a useful supplement to WiFi networks, he said.

The Powerline AV 500 line starts at $159 for a kit, and will begin shipping this fall according to Netgear. The P1901 WG expects its standard to be submitted the IEEE for adoption as an official standard at the end of this month.