nets

AT&T backs another panicky report on data capacity

Americans are racing to move the business (and play) of our daily lives on to wireless networks so quickly that the networks may not be able to keep up much longer. At least that's what one new industry-backed report threatens warns.

The new report is out today from the Global Information Industry Center at the University of California at San Diego. The paper and its author, UCSD fellow and infrastructure expert Michael Kleeman, lay out some dizzying figures on the growing stresses placed on mobile networks--including those below and in the box to the right.

To keep up with demand, U.S. wireless networks have traditionally doubled their capacity every 30 months, but this trend may not keep up with future demand... the volume of data traffic on U.S. networks is expected to increase by 1,800 percent over the next four years.

The report says the inevitable result of demand outstripping capacity so dramatically will be painful network congestion.

"We must understand and accept the trade-offs we will face for the convenience of accessing limited wireless capacity," report author Kleeman says in a statement. "Alternatively, as citizens we need to dramatically lower our expectations for wireless services in the future."… Read more

Cyberoam NetGenie NG11EH router review: The bottle is empty

The Cyberoam NetGenie Home Wireless Router (NG11EH) is no genie in a bottle. It most definitely comes with a very hefty price tag, however: about $200.

With great, that is, large, price comes great expectations. I hoped that the router would blow me away in one way or another. In the end, the only surprise was the price itself. The NG11EH is basically one of the most expensive routers I've ever reviewed while offering the worst performance I've ever seen.

Right out of the box, the router has something other routers don't: a very comprehensive Web-filtering feature, … Read more

Microsoft plugs critical IE, .Net holes

Microsoft today issued eight security bulletins plugging 23 holes, including a critical patch for vulnerabilities that could allow an attacker to take control of a computer, if someone visited a malicious Web page using Internet Explorer.

The cumulative IE patch, MS11-081, fixes eight holes and is rated high priority among today's Patch Tuesday bulletins, which include two rated critical and six rated important.

The other high-priority bulletin is MS11-078, which fixes a vulnerability in .Net Framework and Microsoft Silverlight that could allow an attacker to remotely execute code on a machine, if a user views a malicious Web page … Read more

Microsoft Patch Tuesday to target Windows, IE

Microsoft is gearing up for another Patch Tuesday.

In its regular series of monthly security fixes, the company tomorrow is launching eight separate bulletins to patch 23 different holes in a small but key range of products. Marked as "critical," two of the bulletins are aimed at stopping hackers from remotely running code in Windows, Internet Explorer, .NET, and Silverlight.

Specifically, these two bulletins are deemed critical for the desktop versions of Windows and should be applied to Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7. Only one of the bulletins is tagged as critical for Windows Server 2003, … Read more

Justice Department ramps up WikiLeaks e-mail probe

The U.S. Department of Justice has expanded its investigation of WikiLeaks-related accounts to encompass Google and Internet provider Sonic.net.

Both companies received secret court orders directing them to turn over information from the e-mail account of Jacob Appelbaum, a hacker and human rights activist who has been affiliated with WikiLeaks, The Wall Street Journal reported today.

CNET has learned that the secret court order is what's called a 2703(d) order. It's not as privacy-protective as a traditional search warrant, and some courts have ruled that such orders are unconstitutional when used to read a suspect'… Read more

D.C. court to hear challenges to Net Neutrality rules

Challenges to the Federal Communications Commission's Net neutrality rules will be heard in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, a situation supporters of the rules had hoped to avoid.

On Thursday, the D.C. Circuit was chosen at random to be the court where challenges to the new rules, which prohibit broadband Internet providers from deliberately slowing or blocking subscribers' network traffic, will be heard. The rules were passed by the FCC in 2010. And they were officially registered with the government last month, opening up the process for legal challenges before the rules … Read more

Mac market share continues to inch up

The Mac still owns a tiny market share compared with Windows, but it's one that's slowly been inching up.

In the U.S., Apple held 6.45 percent of all personal computers last month, according to new data from Net Applications, a gain from 6.03 percent from August. The growth from the prior month isn't a surprise, though, since Apple typically enjoys a boost in September thanks to what Net Applications calls "the Back-to-School Bump."

But the latest number also shows a slow but steady rise over the past couple of years from October … Read more

Chrome could unseat Firefox as No. 2 browser

Google's browsers edged closer to second place in both desktop and mobile markets, a gradual trend that helps Google's profitability and its long-term plans for the Web.

On personal computers, Chrome rose from 15.5 percent of global usage in August to 16.2 percent in September, according to Net Applications, whose Web-based analytics tools monitor usage. Chrome trails Internet Explorer, which dropped from 55.3 percent to 54.4 percent, and Firefox, which dipped from 22.6 percent to 22.5 percent. Safari rose from 4.6 percent to 5.0 percent, and Opera was flat at … Read more

Net neutrality rules kick in November 20

The Federal Communications Commission's Net neutrality rules will be published in the Federal Register tomorrow and go into effect--barring legal challenges--November 20, according to a report.

The commission made its announcement about the dates today, PCMag.com reported. On September 12, the White House's Office of Management and Budget signed off on the rules, which meant the next step was publication in the Register.

The Federal Register is the official daily publication for rules, proposed rules, and notices of Federal agencies and organizations. Among other things, it gives citizens access to new regulations so they can examine their … Read more