Symantec Corp. has told users of its consumer security products that they should disable a feature in the software before upgrading to Windows XP Service Pack 3, or risk crippling their computers.

In a post to a Symantec support forum, Reese Anschultz, a senior manager with the company, said users of Norton Internet Security, Norton AntiVirus and Norton 360 — the firm’s best-selling consumer security software titles — should switch off the “SymProtect” feature before trying to install XP SP3.

“After a lot of testing, we’ve reproduced a number of different cases where applying the XP SP3 upgrade adds additional registry keys within already-existing Symantec registry keys,” said Anschultz. “We have determined that the SymProtect feature is involved, though this issue is not exclusive to Symantec customers. To help prevent this issue from occurring, you should disable SymProtect prior to installing the Windows XP SP3 upgrade.”

Anschultz also provided instructions for disabling SymProtect in various Norton-labeled titles.

SymProtect, which Symantec bills as technology designed to protect its security software from being hacked by malware, is also called “tamper protection” in some of Symantec’s consumer products.

Anschultz said last Friday that Symantec was still trying to pin down why the XP SP3 upgrade was adding spurious entries — in some cases thousands of them — to some users’ Windows registries. “We are still trying to understand why the upgrade is adding these keys,” he said in the post.

Within hours of Microsoft Corp.u releasing Windows XP SP3 to its Windows Update service, users started reporting problems that included empty Device Managers and broken network connections that cut them off from the Internet or wireless networks. Users quickly identified the cause as large numbers of bogus keys — all starting with nonsense characters such as ” “$%&” — that had flooded the registry.

Symantec has repeatedly denied that the problem was its fault, while Microsoft has just as regularly declined to comment. Last week, Symantec blamed a Microsoft file named fixccs.exe for spawning the errant registry entries; fixccs.exe is part of the XP SP3 upgrade package.

Today, however, a Symantec spokeswoman said that it was a combination of fixccs.exe and her firm’s SymProtect that caused the problem on some systems. “Fixccs.exe adds registry keys during the SP3 update process and then attempts to delete them,” said the spokeswoman, Cecilia Daclan, in an e-mail Tuesday morning. “SymProtect prevents changes to the registry keys. Thus, it prevents the deletion of the keys added by fixccs.exe.”

Symantec continued to claim, however, that the blanked Device Manager problem was not specific to its software. “This issue is not exclusive to Symantec customers,” said Daclan. “We’ve seen reports from various users who are not running Symantec products.”

Last week, Symantec said it was working on a stand-alone tool that would delete the extraneous registry entries and added that it hoped to have something ready “pretty quickly.” On Tuesday, a Symantec spokeswoman said that the tool should be released next week.

By Gregg Keizer
www.computerworld.com

The centerpiece to the new platform is the Cisco 3300 Series Mobility Services Engine (MSE), an appliance that enterprises can drop into their networks, which will then help manage a variety of mobile devices and applications across wireless and, eventually, wired networks.

Currently, the MSE will support WiFi, but Cisco said the roadmap includes adding RFID, 4G cellular, and other networks in the near future.

“We’re adding a new network element to our network architecture,” said Ben Gibson, Cisco’s senior director of mobility solutions. “A key message here is that wireless networking is not just about connectivity but about the services that run over the network.”

The MSE includes an open application programming interface (API) that developers can tap into to provide their applications with context-aware data, such as the location of a particular device, which could then be used, for example, to seamlessly hand off a VoIP call between access points at the ideal time or to track RFID-tagged equipment in a hospital.

“It’s a whole new way of looking at provisioning applications on networks,” said Craig Mathias, principal analyst with the Farpoint group. He said that Cisco is trying to take components once handled at the application level and bake them deeper into the network itself in order to provide better contextual information and make it more widely accessible to third-party developers.

“I think this is a big win for Cisco,” Mathias said.

Cisco announced several partnerships with third-party application vendors that plan to take advantage of the MSE’s API. The partners ranged from industry leaders like Nokia, which is working closely with Cisco on phone handoffs, to niche players like Agito Networks, which is tapping into the Motion API to improve its fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) product.

“The MSE provides a trigger directly to our [phone] clients,” said Pejman Roshan, vice president of marketing for Agito. “It gives a combined metric, what is equivalent to a link-up/link-down status.”

Without MSE, Roshan said, an Agito client had no way of seeing whether a wireless access point was dealing with too much traffic or was encountering other problems. The MSE can send that contextual information to clients so they can determine whether it is best to use a cellular network or an enterprise wireless LAN.

Roshan said the MSE best helps decide close calls where more information is needed.

“It addresses corner cases, and when it comes to customers, I think being able to address corner cases is a good thing,” Roshan said. “Our solution works really well, but more information is always welcome.”

It is the delivery of this type of contextual data where Cisco is betting it will gain traction.

“The process and delivery method of [contextual] data is very challenging to date. You generally don’t have an open API, and they have to pull the data from a variety of sources,” Gibson said. “By abstracting out the services layer and giving that openness to the application community, it’s going to knock down barriers to deploying more innovative mobility applications in the business.”

In addition to the MSE’s API, which hooks into contextual information and location-based data, the Motion platform also includes an improved client manager — which Gibson cited as a major “pain point” for network administrators — and adaptive wireless intrusion protection.

The Cisco 3350 will ship in June.

By Michael Morisy
searchnetworking.techtarget.com

A number of improvements have also been made to open source graphics drivers for AMD/ATI’s recent Radeon CPUs. In his blog, Dave Airlie writes that he collaborated with another developer to remedy numerous bugs in the code for 3D support for the R500 GPUs used with Radeon-X1000 graphics cards; he says that Compiz now runs smoothly and UT2004 no longer crashes. He plans to include these corrections in developer branches of the various components (including the kernel, libdrm, and mesa); Fedora 9 can expect to receive these changes and a new X graphics driver called “radeon” as a regular update soon.

Matthias Hopf also announced in his blog that the developer branch of the open source driver radeonhd now also supports DRI, though it has to be manually enabled, and not everything has been properly tested. Now, radeonhd also supports AMD’s 780G motherboard graphics chipset; radeon already supported it because it, unlike radeonhd, is based on AMD’s AtomBIOS.

During Kernel Tracks at LinuxTAG, David S. Miller provided an insider’s view of the Linux network stack in his keynote address. He provided details about which improvements developers are planning for the Linux network stack to improve throughput and reduce the load on the CPU. In his presentation entitled “Linux Kernel – Quo vadis?”, Thomas Gleixner of Linutronix analysed problems in the developer process for Linux and described some possible solutions; he also provided an overview of the changes planned in the near future. The developer of UIO (Userspace I/O), Hans-Jürgen Koch, had previously explained how UIO drivers are developed in an earlier presentation. He emphasized that the user part of the driver should be put under an open-source license even though it does not have to be. Gerd ‘Kraxel’ Hoffmann then provided an overview of current developments concerning virtualisation solutions KVM, Lguest, and Xen and the techniques they use, such as paravirt_ops-Interface. He also described Xenner, which allows paravirtualised Xen guests to be executed under Xen.

Kernel log in brief:

• Linus Torvalds has released 2.6.26-rc4, the fourth release candidate of Linux 2.6.26 . It corrects a number of problems with PAE kernels.
• At LKML, Theodore Ts’o announced that Linux Kernel Summit 2008 will be taking place in mid-September in Portland, Oregon.
• X developers have added support for MPX (Multi-Pointer X) to the code management system. Contrary to expectations, MPX now also supports graphics tablets, though the function will not be part of X.org 7.4, but rather of X.org 7.5.
• The Mesa Project has published Release Candidate 1 of Mesa 7.1.
• The Ndiswrapper team has published version 1.53 of Ndiswrapper.

Source: www.heise-online.co.uk

A hacker attack on cable company Comcast Corp. late Wednesday brought down the company’s Comcast.net website and its Web-based e-mail service, affecting thousands of people in the Twin Cities and possibly millions nationwide.

The attack by two anonymous hackers about 10:30 p.m. redirected Internet traffic from Comcast.net and Comcast’s e-mail software to an outside website. There, the hackers used nicknames to brag that they had “roXed Comcast.”

After the attack was discovered, the message was erased and Comcast customers saw what appeared to be a blank page, but Comcast’s webmail service remained “intermittent” Thursday evening, Comcast spokeswoman Mary Beth Schubert said.

Comcast said it had no evidence that customer information had been compromised, and that customers didn’t need to take any action. It also said it had notified law enforcement and an investigation was continuing.

However, Chuck Smith of Wisconsin security firm LockNet Inc. said that, as a precaution, Comcast Internet customers should change their e-mail passwords.

He also suggested running anti-spyware software in case the substitute website had used a feature of Internet Explorer called “Active X” to download malicious software, such as a program that records and transmits keystrokes, to Comcast customer PCs.

Two Comcast Internet customers, Lynette Nelson of Burnsville and Rob Walker of Woodbury, said their usernames and passwords couldn’t have been compromised because they were unable to type them into the blank page that greeted them Thursday morning.

Comcast doesn’t disclose how many Internet customers it has in the Twin Cities, but it is believed to be some fraction of its 550,000 cable TV customers here. Comcast said it didn’t know what percentage of its e-mail users were hit by the outage, which struck only people accessing their accounts through Comcast’s Web software. Those using Microsoft Outlook or other independent e-mail software were unaffected.

By STEVE ALEXANDER
www.startribune.com

Removing a roadblock that might have continued to prevent an alliance of printer and tools manufacturers from implementing a Web services-based specification for document scanning devices, Microsoft announced yesterday it will go ahead and provide its Scan Service Definition 1.0 for Web Services on Devices, to the IEEE’s Printer Working Group.

Microsoft is a member of the PWG, as are manufacturers such as Canon, Lexmark, Ricoh, Apple, Dell, Sharp, Samsung, and Epson. Together, they’re working on a standardized way for scanning devices connected to a network to issue job control messages using a Web services protocol. Microsoft had already produced a protocol for Windows Vista to manage network-based scanners, originally called “WSD Scan”. Since the framework was already in existence, the PWG called upon Microsoft in February 2007 to see whether there was anything in its existing model that it could use to create broader data and service models for a more general standard.

But according to PWG meeting minutes that July, Microsoft’s representative came back with the bad news that it might not be able to do so, because not everything that went into the WSD-Scan specification was its own to share.

“Mike Fenelon explained that Microsoft’s concern is its contractual agreements with individual company’s contribution to WSD-Scan,” the minutes read. “Unfortunately Microsoft cannot provide WSD-scan specification as a whole for the basic starting point of PWG scan service. But Mike is free to discuss the basic concept of scanning, and contribute according to his own knowledge to move the model to the right direction.”

As the minutes continued, it wouldn’t be possible to just “cut and paste” the specification without reviewing the intellectual property problems involved. Xerox’ representative then said he’d never had any trouble contributing to the PWG, even though there were probably IP issues buried within its contributions. The discussion concluded with Microsoft saying it would be happy to contribute its observations and directions as a PWG member, “but cannot let PWG take the entire WSD-scan specification due to the contractual agreement with many companies. But there is nothing to prevent an individual company to take whatever it contributed to WSD-scan before to PWG scan service if the company chooses so.”

Between last July and last April, however, Microsoft’s stance on the matter did a complete 180, from wrinkling its nose about the idea to promoting the concept as something the PWG should actively adopt. In a meeting last month, Microsoft’s representatives presented a PowerPoint presentation (PDF available here) fully explaining how WS-Scan (now without the extra “D”) enabled devices endowed with the protocol to generate a “job ticket” — a kind of electronic manifest for the scanning job — set forth the methods which initiate the job, and marshal the transfer of data between devices in the network.

The presentation may have been Microsoft’s easiest sell to date. As recently as three weeks ago, PWG members were actively debating how to map WS-Scan service codes into their existing model, with all the fervor of congressmen marking up a tax appropriations bill.

Yesterday’s announcement was the culmination of several weeks of heavy collaboration, the result of which could be a new generation of scanning devices that can plug into a company network and be managed through administrative SMT software…such as Microsoft’s own.

By Scott M. Fulton
www.betanews.com

The industrial company began as a manufacturer of bells for clock towers and has grown to represent established gravity die cast specialists. This growth necessitated a comprehensive review of the existing corporate network.

Representatives at Wahl Industries sought to outsource to a service provider with a proven track record and expertise in the integration and management of Microsoft-based product and infrastructure.

There was a requirement for a complete IT infrastructure solution that would provide the business with a reliable, secure networking system. The solution had to include server hardware and software, LAN, WAN, security hardware and software.

Integr8 IT was selected as the IT managed services provider of choice. The national company is a Gold Certified Partner in four competencies, including Advanced Infrastructure, Network Infrastructure, Security, and Information Worker.

Furthermore the service agreement with Integr8 IT covered complete IT support of the infrastructure upon implementation. This included installation, configuration and comprehensive support and maintenance on routers, servers, desktops, laptops, firewalls, Microsoft operating systems, databases and applications.

Technical engineers at Integr8 IT decided upon the deployment and integration of Microsoft Small Business Server 2003.

The core value of the solution involved a new windows 2003 domain, using windows small business server 2003 and a deployment of a new 32-bit server.

Robert Sussman, joint-MD, Integr8 IT
Robert Sussman, joint-MD, Integr8 IT
The new domain was implemented as a single forest single domain infrastructure with a local Domain controller at Wahl Industries, SBS hosting applications for the high demand of e-mail using exchange server 2003, ISA 2006 and SQL server.

This solution focused primarily on Active Directory providing secure access to files shares and business critical applications, Exchange 2003 using Windows Server 2003 R2.

“This version of Exchange provided the client with a fantastic set of abilities for their requirements and the benefits of access to e-mail, RPC over HTTPS, Webmail and Active Sync.,” says Robert Sussman, joint MD at Integr8 IT. “The scope of this project and the level of technology skills required falls in line with our business model as a Microsoft centric solution company.

In addition to meeting the core requirements of the business, the solution offers the complete power of the latest Small Business Server on the market.

“The ability for the user to access the mailbox via webmail, using their laptop or mobile outlook device, has never before been available and will completely change the way business can be conducted. This was all made available by publishing these tools securely using ISA Server 2006. A user will never again be out of contact. Productivity, availability, return on investment have all been massive gains, whilst cost of ownership, support costs and management cost have all been reduced,” adds Sussman.

Source: www.itweb.co.za

Aruba Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: ARUN), a global leader in wireless LANs and secure mobility solutions, today announced that Microsoft has passed an important milestone having deployed more than 11,000 centrally managed access points in its massively scalable wireless LAN. The Aruba deployment replaced a legacy system of autonomous access points that was difficult to manage, lacked guest access support, and required enhanced security features. The sheer scale of the centralized Aruba system, spanning as it does across virtually every continent, makes it one of the largest enterprise wireless networks in the world.

Originally announced in June 2005, the network was to include 5,000 access points and serve over 25,000 simultaneous users worldwide each day. While the scope of the system subsequently expanded, the objectives remained the same: provide follow-me connectivity and follow-me security to all users regardless of where they work or roam; offer centralized management of the entire network with redundant back-up; support a wide array of personal computing systems; and enable a number of new and improved IT services. The Aruba wireless network services over 80,000 unique wireless client users.

“We embarked on this project with very specific objectives with respect to network management, security, and end user satisfaction and the numbers speak for themselves,” said Victoria Poncini, Microsoft’s Network Architect. “Today more than 75% of our employees use the wireless LAN every day, and 72% said they could work without any wires at all. 93% of users can use their computers in new locations because of the enhanced mobility afforded by the wireless LAN, and 70% of employees said the network saved them at least 5 work hours a week because of increased flexibility. Because of large user adoption of wireless connectivity it is not difficult to envision a time when we transition to an all-wireless workplace.”

Aruba’s unified mobility networks securely deliver the enterprise network to users by integrating adaptive wireless LANs, identity-based security, application continuity services, and multi-vendor network management into a cohesive, high-performance system. Adaptive wireless LANs deliver follow-me connectivity to roaming users, and support standard Wi-Fi clients such as Intel Centrino. Aruba’s identity-based security associates policies with users instead of ports, delivering follow-me security that provides expanded mobility for users without compromising security.

“Just as Aruba relies on Microsoft SharePoint, Office, and Outlook products to enhance our productivity, so, too, does Microsoft look to Aruba’s adaptive wireless LANs to enhance employee mobility and efficiency,” said Keerti Melkote, Aruba’s co-founder and head of partnerships and products. “For most Aruba customers, Microsoft included, the wireless LAN is their primary enterprise network. Microsoft’s extensive, business-critical deployment is a strong endorsement for the scalability, robustness, and security of Aruba’s wireless LANs.”

About Aruba Networks

People move. Networks must follow. Aruba securely delivers networks to users, wherever they work or roam. Our unified mobility solutions include Wi-Fi networks, identity-based security, remote access and cellular services, and centralized multi-vendor network management to enable the Follow-Me Enterprise that moves in lock-step with users:

– Follow-Me Connectivity: Adaptive 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi networks optimize
themselves to ensure that users are always within reach of mission-critical
information;
– Follow-Me Security: Identity-based security assigns access policies to
users, enforcing those policies whenever and wherever a network is
accessed;
– Follow-Me Applications: Remote access solutions and cellular network
integration ensure uninterrupted access to applications as users move;
– Follow-Me Management: Multi-vendor network management provides a
single point of control while managing both legacy and new wireless
networks from both Aruba and its competitors.

The cost, convenience, and security benefits of our unified mobility solutions are fundamentally changing how and where we work. Listed on the NASDAQ and Russell 2000® Index, Aruba is based in Sunnyvale, California, and has operations throughout the Americas, Europe, Middle East, and Asia Pacific regions. To learn more, visit Aruba at http://www.arubanetworks.com.

© 2008 Aruba Networks, Inc. AirWave®, Aruba Networks®, Aruba Mobility Management System®, Bluescanner, For Wireless That Works®, Mobile Edge Architecture, People Move. Networks Must Follow., RFProtect, The All Wireless Workplace Is Now Open For Business, and The Mobile Edge Company® are trademarks of Aruba Networks, Inc. All rights reserved. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Media Contacts
Michael Tennefoss
Aruba Networks, Inc.
+1-408-754-8034
mtennefoss@arubanetworks.com
Patty Oien
Breakaway Communications
+1-415-358-2482
poien@breakawaycom.com

NetMotion’s core client-server software, Mobility XE, enables mobile workers to maintain secure connections to applications as they move through wireless coverage gaps and across various networks. Used by more than 1,200 business and agencies, NetMotion Wireless’ software works across Windows-based laptops and mobile devices.

“In today’s mobile economy, it’s imperative that we both anticipate and deliver on innovations that enable our customers to maximize productivity and stay competitive,” said Bob Hunsberger, CEO of NetMotion Wireless. “Our latest version of Mobility XE allows IT administrators to build flexible and intelligent security policies for their mobile workers and implement new VoIP and video applications, without compromising productivity.”

Mobile Network Access Control (NAC)

Mobility XE version 8.0 was specifically designed to meet the unique security and connectivity needs of highly mobile field personnel. It allows devices to connect to the enterprise network only after meeting specified security policies, but gives administrators greater control and flexibility over how and when to administer remediation policies. The intelligent Mobile Network Access Control (NAC) features of Mobility XE are compatible with many leading security products, allowing administrators to automatically check compliance for required software, including:

* Antivirus;
* Antispyware;
* Firewall;
* Operating system version;
* Windows Update status;
* Registry keys;
* Processes and files;
* Mobility XE client version;
* and other applications.

Unlike remote desktop users or casual mobile users, highly mobile field personnel such as public safety officers, home health care workers or field service technicians often log onto the network while at patients’ or customers’ homes, at the point of service. IT administrators that support highly mobile field forces need security solutions that protect their networks without impacting the productivity of the mobile professionals they serve. In these situations, automatic security policies that force users to perform non-critical software upgrades diminish productivity.

With Mobility XE version 8.0, Mobile NAC typically deploys in minutes, without any need to reconfigure network infrastructure. A simple NAC wizard makes it easy to configure and enforce access security policies. Unlike automatic security policies that force users to perform non-critical software updates before allowing access, Mobile NAC integrates with Mobility XE’s Policy Management module, giving administrators flexibility and control over the response to a device that does not meet security guidelines. Based on severity and even the speed of the worker’s connection, administrators may choose from a host of options, including simple warnings, triggering customizable remediation policies that can limit application access, initiating software downloads, or disconnecting or quarantining the device altogether. As rules are updated, they are automatically pushed down to client devices, and devices are automatically rescanned at regular intervals to ensure ongoing compliance.

Improving Wireless VoIP Quality

In addition to Mobile NAC features, Mobility XE, now for the first time, also dramatically improves the performance, reliability and quality of real-time applications such as Voice over IP (VoIP) and video streaming over wireless networks.

“As businesses and government agencies look to support the newest real-time applications for their mobile workforce, it’s important for them to know that their existing investments in wireless technology will be utilized fully,” said Nathan Dyer, senior analyst, Yankee Group. “Forward-looking solutions like NetMotion Wireless’ Mobile VPN, make it possible for enterprises to take advantage of converging trends in VoIP and streaming video as their use extends to various wireless environments.”

More than 70 percent of companies are planning some form of IP telephony within the next two years according to the Yankee Group, with 37 percent of large organizations of over 10,000 employees being the largest users to date. As use of wireless technology within the enterprise – and on the road – continues to become more pervasive, organizations will need a reliable means to deliver VoIP calls via disparate wireless networks. Using advanced packet-loss recovery techniques, Mobility XE improves VoIP call quality without requiring any modifications to customers’ VoIP software. In areas of degraded wireless coverage, Mobility XE can maintain call quality even with up to 70 percent packet loss, whereas VoIP calls over conventional VPNs can degrade significantly, to the point that a conversation is unintelligible, with as little as 10 percent packet loss. Also, Mobility XE can maintain a VoIP call initiated on a laptop or smartphone, even when users roam between Wi-Fi and wireless wide-area networks.

In addition, Mobility XE supports advanced traffic-shaping to guarantee VoIP traffic receives priority over other applications, ensuring that the call is allocated as much of the available bandwidth as is necessary to maintain call quality, regardless of the wireless network in use. The policies can be deployed in minutes and significantly improve the reliability and quality of almost any real-time application.

Potential applications include:

* Secure, VoIP calls over Wi-Fi in hospitals and other campuses;
* Integrated instant messaging (IM) and VoIP communications on new Windows-based smartphones and laptops for mobile professionals;
* Reducing international calling charges of field personnel for internationally dependent fleet management or shipping companies;
* Maximizing network call efficiency for bandwidth constrained wireless network operators as they transition to IP-based networks; and
* Other applications.

Improving Wireless Video Quality

While wireless video today remains dominated by consumer entertainment services, the technology will have growing importance for business and government agencies in the years ahead. To date, however, limited bandwidth and other factors have inhibited its development across wide-area networks. Mobility XE 8.0 includes packet loss recovery and compression features that improve streaming video quality over multiple wireless networks.

Potential applications include:

* Real-time, on-scene video feeds for police and other law enforcement agencies;
* Video conferencing between mobile sales professionals and the home office;
* Video-based training or “how to” videos for on-scene repair technicians in various industries;
* Secure video connections for military or emergency response deployments; and
* Other applications.

For a more detailed description of product features and specifications, please visit www.netmotionwireless.com.

About NetMotion Wireless
Based in Seattle, NetMotion Wireless’ software enables businesses and agencies to maintain and optimize connections to applications as their mobile workers move in and out of wireless coverage areas and across various networks. NetMotion’s award-winning Mobile VPN, Mobility XE, enhances mobile worker productivity at more than 1,200 of the world’s most respected organizations across multiple industries including utilities, healthcare, communications, public safety, local government, transportation and many others. For more information about NetMotion Wireless or its products, please visit www.netmotionwireless.com.

SOURCE: NetMotion Wireless

“Our first priority is to secure government data, at all levels, on all operating systems,” said Mike Carpenter, senior vice president of McAfee’s Public Sector. “We’re proud to provide this deep integration of our threat protection with the latest Microsoft platforms to deliver the best possible protection for our Defense customers.”

The offering will provide extended endpoint health check tests for the native Microsoft platform, covering hundreds of software applications and Windows patch levels. This approach leverages current large DoD investments in McAfee and Microsoft solutions deployed under programs such as the Host Based Security System (HBSS).

“Security is a core pillar of Microsoft’s focus on Trustworthy Computing and it is fundamental to the Microsoft platform and our value to customers,” said Greg Bateman, Manager of Microsoft’s Joint Defense Agencies Team. “Through this partnership with McAfee, we can significantly increase DoD’s IT security in an era of increasing threats and network attacks.”

In addition to expanded health checking for systems and devices attempting to access controlled DoD networks, the Microsoft and McAfee offering consolidates network-wide endpoint enforcement onto a centrally managed console using McAfee(R) ePolicy Orchestrator(R). By adding more than 600 health checks, proactively authenticating and remediating out-of-policy devices and giving customers the ability to create customizable assessments against mandated security policies, McAfee adds significantly to the complete protection of mission-critical Defense systems, including classified networks. Several major agencies within the Department of Defense are currently piloting the new offering.

About McAfee, Inc.

McAfee, Inc., headquartered in Santa Clara, California, is the world’s largest dedicated security technology company. It delivers proactive and proven solutions and services that secure systems and networks around the world, allowing users to browse and shop the Web securely. With its unmatched security expertise and commitment to innovation, McAfee empowers home users, businesses, the public sector and service providers by enabling them to comply with regulations, protect data, prevent disruptions, identify vulnerabilities and continuously monitor and improve their security. http://www.mcafee.com

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

McAfee, ePolicy Orchestrator and/or other noted McAfee related products contained herein are registered trademarks or trademarks of McAfee, Inc., and/or its affiliates in the US and/or other countries. McAfee Red in connection with security is distinctive of McAfee brand products. Any other non-McAfee related products, registered and/or unregistered trademarks contained herein is only by reference and are the sole property of their respective owners. (C) 2008 McAfee, Inc. All rights reserved.

SOURCE McAfee, Inc.

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 10 SP2 includes support for fully virtualized Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2003. Novell claims system administrators can also migrate these Windows Server guests across physical machines in real-time. Because of the Microsoft/Novell partnership, SLES is the only third-party virtualization solution offering full Microsoft support for its Windows Server guests. In return, the Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V hypervisor, now a release candidate, also supports SLES as a virtual guest.

SLES also includes the Xen 3.2 virtualization hypervisor.

The new SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED) 10 SP2 continues the Microsoft interoperability theme. For example, SLED 10 SP2 now supports read and write access to local NTFS drive partitions. This functionality is also available in other Linux distributions thanks to the open source NTFS-3G driver.

Both the server and desktop versions of SUSE Linux also have better Active Directory (AD) integration. This is also an area where, thanks to Microsoft being forced to open its network server protocols to open source groups like Samba, other Linux distributions will be able to offer similar functionality. That said, for now Novell offers the best Microsoft network integration, and SUSE Linux is likely to be the only Linux that receives official Microsoft support for its AD network integration.

On the desktop, I put SLED 10 SP2 through its paces on an IBM ThinkPad R61, which had come with SLED 10 SP1 pre-installed. Installation was not as straightforward as I would have liked. For example, you can’t simply tell YaST, the SUSE administration tool, to automatically upgrade to SP2. Instead, you must be certain that you’re up-to-date with your previous patches, then update with the “Update to Service Pack 2 patch,” manually set YaST to use the new SP2 Installation Source server, then apply the product-sled10-sp2 and slesp2o-sp2_online patch and reboot. It’s easier by far to simply download the media, which is available both as a set of CDs and a DVD, and boot from your optical drive and just follow the instructions for an update. For the details of the process see the Novell SLED 10 SP2 deployment page.

Once installed, you will find it easier to get SLED to work with an AD-based network. I had less trouble than I had ever had in integrating the laptop into my Server 2008/2003 hybrid AD/domain network. I also took the network down and brought it back up as a pure AD network and, again, working with SLED 10 SP2 on it was painless.

Perhaps the most significant changes in the new software, from a user’s viewpoint, are the upgrades to OpenOffice.org 2.4 Novell Edition. I was able to run several moderately complex Excel spreadsheets in OpenOffice.org Calc, thanks to its improved Visual Basic for Applications macro support. Impress can also now show Microsoft PowerPoint presentations with embedded audio and video.

Writer can both read and write documents, spreadsheets, and presentations in Microsoft’s basic Open XML (Office 2007) formats. This functionality is also available in a standalone program, OpenOffice.OpenXML Translator 1.1.1. This program will only work though with Novell’s 2.4 version of OpenOffice.

In the minus column, SLED 10 SP2 has a surprising hole. This desktop doesn’t come with a working Novell client. If you’re still using NetWare on the back end, you’ve got a real problem. A patch should be out shortly so that the SLED 10 SP1 client will work properly. There’s also a fix you can put in yourself if you don’t mind a tiny bit of code editing.

Read More…

Source: www.e-linux.it