Rural Broadband

Rural broadband

Rural areas which are missing out on broadband via BT lines need help to create their own networks, say experts.

Getting broadband to rural areas can be a long journey But people have to be shown why high-speed internet access can make a difference to them, argued community leaders at a major industry conference in London on Wednesday.

Rest Of Story: BBC News Site

EDIT: Forgot to mention that this article was discovered by Kelton

THE TIMES, THEY AREN'T A-CHANGIN' - PLEASE READ !!!

The times, they aren't a-changin'

As you may know, our illustrious WebMaster SimonV is currently sunning himself in far-off climes, with scarcely a thought for us here in our various sub-zero locations.

Unfortunately, in his haste to depart, SimonV forgot to leave us the key to the CertForums cuckoo clock, so you may have noticed that our time is still currently displaying British Summertime

So please don't panic, you are not an hour late/early !

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause over the next week, but assure you it will be resolved as soon as possible.


The CertForums Team.

Novell surrounds Microsoft Exchange

Novell surrounds Microsoft Exchange

Novell this week announced support for Microsoft Exchange 2003 via its Ximian Connector for Microsoft Exchange. This will allow Linux and Sun Solaris clients the same rights, privileges and controls when attached to Exchange as a Windows email client.

This means that Linux desktop users can manage their e-mail, calendars, group schedules, address books, public folders and tasks in Exchange. Ximian is the company that Novell bought in August which has worked on the Gnome desktop GUI for Linux and this underlined a strategic switch to Linux for Novell.

Rest of Story : The Register

Achieving secure unwired bliss

<font size="3">Achieving secure unwired bliss </font>

Thanks to Tripwire45 for this article. Winn Schwartau writes an artilce on converting your mobile phone into a perfectly good cellular modem that connects to the Internet at a fixed speed of 230.4K bit/sec. For free!

Full Story: nwfusion.com

Yahoo! sets decoy email traps for spammers

<font size="3">Yahoo! sets decoy email traps for spammers</font>


Yahoo! has rolled out email enhancements and tools that enable users to set up hundreds of disposable decoy addresses, which if compromised by spammers and swamped by junk mail, can be deleted without affecting the primary account.

In much the same way that good old-fashioned pop3 accounts have long allowed users to set up practically unlimited email addresses, the Yahoo! AddressGuard system lets users set up secondary email addresses that are managed from the primary mail account.

"If at any time that address is sold or harvested by spammers, the email user can delete the address without affecting their primary email address," Yahoo! said.

The premium email services will only be available to subscribers of the firm's Mail Plus package which sports a $29.99 per year price tag.

Full Story:...

Microsoft is all business with IM

<font size="3">Microsoft is all business with IM</font>

Microsoft is set to begin its most aggressive effort yet to sell instant-messaging services to corporations--and it's pulling out its old playbook to gain traction.

When the company on Tuesday launches Office System, its updated suite of business applications, customers will find hooks to instant messaging (IM) features that are built into e-mail, word processing, spreadsheet and presentation programs. The idea is to let employees see at a glance from any corporate document up-to-the-minute contact information about each other, a feature known as "presence" in IM parlance. For example, an Outlook e-mail message might note that the author is currently offline and available only at their cell phone number.

The catch: To take advantage of these features, customers need not only to upgrade to Office System....

PC rage turns the air blue in UK households

<font size="3">PC rage turns the air blue in UK households </font>

Computers are damaging our health, thanks to rising stress levels induced by so-called 'PC pests' like spam, pop up ads and viruses. More than four in five (86 per cent) of British computer users get irritated and stressed by PC problems, according to a survey commissioned by security firm Symantec. Only 14 per cent of those quizzed had the Zen-like calm to say problems with their PCs never irritate them.

The survey of 500 UK adults, conducted by Ipsos Research, came up with five irritants most likely to make a user’s blood boil. In order of annoyance these were: slow performance and system crashes (cited as worst irritant by 23 per cent of those quizzed); "spam, scams and too much email" (20 per cent); pop up advertisements (15 per cent); viruses (14 per cent) and files getting lost or deleted (four per cent).

And just as...

Problem hits Western Digital IDE RAID arrays

<font size="3">Problem hits Western Digital IDE RAID arrays</font>

If you're finding Western Digital EIDE drives drop out of an IDE RAID array after a few days, the firm appears to have the answer. It might only affect you if you have drives shipped before June. All drives since that date are AOK.

This irritating phenomenon happens because of a feature that cuts idle acoustic noise in desktops in an IDE RAID environment. But WD says there’s an easy answer – you can just switch this feature off and Bob will be your uncle. So if you’ve been wondering what’s happened to your EIDE drives, worry no more and head over here for more info.

News source: The Inquirer

Woman sentenced for reading e-mail of husband's ex-wife

<font size="3">Woman sentenced for reading e-mail of husband's ex-wife</font>

A judge sentenced an Arizona woman to 60 days home detention for intercepting her husband's ex-wife's e-mail, saying the penalty is a warning to others who might be tempted to do the same.

"Privacy is still a cherished value," U.S. District Judge Richard P. Matsch said in sentencing Angel Lee, 28, of El Mirage, Arizona.

Lee pleaded guilty in March and admitted accessing at least 215 e-mails sent last year to her husband's ex-wife, Duongladde Ramsay. Officials said she fraudulently obtained the user name and password information for Ramsay's e-mail account.

Matsch, best known for his role overseeing the Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, bombing trials, has said the e-mail case involved a vicious divorce dispute over children. At Lee's sentencing Friday, he said he considered sending her to jail but believed she needed to be home with her...

Beefed-up firewall, new version of Update for XP SP2

<font size="3">Beefed-up firewall, new version of Update for XP SP2</font>


The nature of the mysterious components of the 'security update' to ship with Windows XP Service Pack 2 is becoming clearer, and SP2 itself could be becoming nearer. Steve Ballmer told us approximately what the update was supposed to do, but not how, in his security manifesto last week, but Paul Thurrott has some specifics, the most important being that the update to the built-in firewall will include features from Microsoft Internet Security &amp; Acceleration Server, including outbound scanning capabilities.

ISA Server itself has an update in beta, but you can get an idea of the differences between it and the current XP Internet Connection Firewall (ICF) from here. Note that the two are described as complementing one another, but that's more a case of Microsoft product positioning for the business market, and clearly doesn't apply...