Tuesday, January 25

3Com's new wireless AirConnect system will let laptop users roam around the office and stay connected to the network.

Excite@Home has named a new CEO, and announced its first-ever profitable quarter.

The first color Palm IIIs will be shown February 2.

PC Magazine takes Modem Booster 1.0 for a spin. It's one of several programs that tweak your Dial-Up Networking settings to optimize your connection. Worth a try, in my opinion, but don't set your expectations too high.

Cellnet, a division of British Telecom, will begin offering 100K Internet access over cell phones in June.

Security and privacy

A group of meddling teenagers has found a way to take over AOL Instant Messenger accounts. The exploit uses an AOL staff tool for changing customer passwords. Speaking of which, another company has released a chat client that's compatible with AOL IM, but may get sued into the ground.

A security hole at Outpost.com left customer's email addresses, shipping addresses, and orders open for public consumption. Though the type of credit card used was revealed, the credit card number was not.

PC World examines Windows 2000 security.

The patent for RSA's encryption algorithm expires expires January 24 of this year, which should lead to lower-priced, more widespread encryption. The RSA algorithm is the public key encryption technique used in PGP.

Ira Winkler takes another look at cable modem privacy. Open question: how hard would it be for someone in your neighborhood to eavesdrop on the local cable modem traffic, assuming they also had a cable modem? Post your thoughts to NewsTalk.

Due to server upgrades, 56K.COM did not publish on Friday. 

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