Tuesday, May 18

Keynote Systems, a company that measures Internet performance, has completed a study of Internet access methods. Traditional T-1 lines outperformed 384K DSL and cable modems. DSL beat cable modems in the evening, when personal use is highest, but lagged behind DSL during business hours. Oddly enough, most coverage is using headlines that proclaim a victory for DSL, when the data does not appear to bear that out.

Netscape Communicator 4.6 debuted Monday. Enhancements include 56-bit encryption, improved hooks to Netscape's Open Directory, and integration of Real Networks G2 player. AOL reportedly eliminated 100 bugs from the previous version.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has quietly released a stealth upgrade to Internet Explorer 5.0 to fix problems with Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol, incompatibilities with Office 2000, and glitches when synchronizing with Palm handhelds.

Mel Beckman looks at home networking solutions in a comprehensive PC World feature story.

3Com's stock is up on rumors that either Lucent or Ericsson will acquire the company.

Security alert: Russian New Year

CNN reports on a potential security hole termed Russian New Year by Finjan Software. As described on Symantec's AntiVirus web site, Russian New Year exploits two security glitches. The first is that Microsoft Excel's CALL function can use functionality present in Windows DLLs. The second is that many popular browsers will open Excel spreadsheets without confirmation dialogs. When combined together, and possibly with Excel macros, the exploits open the way for an Excel spreadsheet linked to a web site or sent as an email attachment to have its way with a Windows computer.

There are no known spreadsheets that take advantage of the vulnerabilities, but it's probably prudent to secure your systems now. According to Finjan software, the fix for Office 97 is to install Service Release 1, then install Service Release 2 plus the patch to disable the call function. Office 95 users must upgrade to Office 97 to be safe. Symantec recommends configuring your browser to not open Excel spreadsheets automatically, and states that "Any future threats using this technique will be easily handled by Norton AntiVirus."

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Friday, May 21

Installing Mac OS 8.6 on an original, Rev. A iMac can cause the Modem control panel to default to the built-in infrared port. The fix is to open the Modem control panel, set "Connect via" to "Internal Modem," and select "iMac internal 56K" from the modem selection list. Apple tech note 24919 covers the issue.

The 3Com Palm VII will debut May 24th. The new model will support two-way wireless communications through a paging network. Web access will require web sites to format their information as proprietary "web clippings." As I said back in November, the clippings are a bad idea, and others agree. The new Palm has an expected price of $599.

The U.S. Congress's General Accounting Office found that some of NASA's critical computers are vulnerable to hacking. The GAO was able to gain unauthorized entry to systems that collect and distribute data from U.S. satellites.

Hushmail is a new web-based email service with strong encryption.

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