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• Ten tools to make Windows shine

  Are you worried about malware and spyware plaguing your system? I have a cool, free tool that gives you an extra layer of defense when you're Web surfing. I also have two free utilities that can lock up and hide your sensitive folders and keep them from prying eyes. Plus, for readers who didn't like my earlier tip for disabling the Insert key, I offer a nifty program to watch your Insert, Caps Lock, and Num Lock keys.

  Written by Steve Bass • 01 July 08 16:02

• How to partition internal Flash memory on Cisco routers

  On most class B Flash file systems, you can partition banks of Flash memory into separate, logical devices so that the router can hold and maintain two or more different software images.

  Written by Brad Reese • 05 May 08 12:17

• Kernel space: Ticket spinlocks

  Spinlocks are the lowest-level mutual exclusion mechanism in the Linux kernel. As such, they have a great deal of influence over the safety and performance of the kernel, so it is not surprising that a great deal of optimization effort has gone into the various (architecture-specific) spinlock implementations. That does not mean that all of the work has been done, though; a patch merged for 2.6.25 shows that there is always more which can be done.

  Written by Jonathan Corbet • 14 Feb. 08 10:06

• Born from Firefox

  They are four applications designed to serve different purposes: A web browser, a music player and organizer, another that does the same for video, and a word processor for screenwriters. Yet they share one thing in common: All were built with a Mozilla-based toolkit, either the Gecko Runtime Environment or its successor, XULRunner. Both toolkits use the same codebase which runs Firefox.

  Written by Howard Wen • 07 Feb. 08 09:30

• Consultant: How to deal with Oracle licensing

  A consultant offered advice Tuesday regarding how Oracle customers can get the best deal and protect themselves while licensing software from the enterprise software giant.

  Written by Chris Kanaracus • 06 Feb. 08 08:50

• Tutorial/How-to: Use Google apps to build your business

  Google is synonymous with searching the Web, but search isn't the company's sole focus. Google also provides top-notch services that other businesses can use to improve their Web presence, reach new customers, and make boatloads of money.

  Written by PC World Staff • 31 Jan. 08 10:01

• Kernel space: timerfd() and system call review

  One of the fundamental principles of Linux kernel development is that user-space interfaces are set in stone. Once an API has been made available to user space, it must, for all practical purposes, be supported (without breaking applications) indefinitely. There have been times when this rule has been broken, but, even in the areas known for trouble (sysfs, for example), the number of times that the user-space API has been broken has remained relatively small.

  Written by Jonathan Corbet • 23 Aug. 07 09:44

• Prepare your network for VOIP

  Companies wanting to get the most use of voice over IP (VOIP) need to know the steps involved in hardening their network and Internet infrastructure to get the best results out of their digital voice deployment projects.

  Written by David Strom • 31 May 07 08:49

• How to build a better Web site

  The Internet has brought a lot of business to My1Stop, a Kansas, U.S.-based printing company. About half of its $US20 million in annual revenue comes from Web traffic, says Michael Joseph, vice president of e-commerce.

  Written by Mary K. Pratt • 22 May 07 14:25

• Securing a RADIUS server

  For any corporate wireless infrastructure to remain secure, using 802.1X for authentication is a must - after all, it provides much more granular control of authentication credentials and can provide accounting for wireless LAN usage. Setting everything up can be a complex process fraught with choosing the right EAP type that both your clients and your RADIUS server supports in addition to putting in place the PKI infrastructure that some EAP types require. During this whole process one thing can often be overlooked - the security of the RADIUS server itself.

  Written by Andrew Lockhart • 08 May 07 09:53

• Data leakage prevention: Port dependence dangers

  Data leakage prevention (DLP) refers to a class of detection and enforcement technologies aimed at securing internal information. The latter can be anything from compliance-related data (social security and credit card data) to intellectual property (IP). Enforcement capabilities extend from detection and alerting all the way to blocking, quarantining, or encrypting the outbound network traffic. Initial technology deployments focused on e-mail (an easily proxied protocol) but have recently begun to include HTTP, FTP, and various chat or IM services as well as encrypted transports such as SSL and SSH.

  Written by Erik de la Iglesia • 08 May 07 09:52

• Seven post-install tips for Ubuntu 7.04

  So, you've just installed Ubuntu 7.04, otherwise known as the "Feisty Fawn" release of everyone's favorite (for now) flavor of Linux. You booted the installation disc , looked around the test environment to discover that your hardware was working, and double-clicked the Install icon on the desktop. The Ubuntu installer helped you make room for Linux on your hard drive, and even copied over some of your documents and settings from Windows.

  Written by Matthew Newton • 20 April 07 09:37

• Four steps to battling botnets

  How do you know if your computer, or any of the computers in the network you manage, has become infected with zombie code? After all, the programs that turn a computer into an undead slave for spammers and phishers don't install a desktop icon or an entry on the Windows Start menu. A survey of experts reveals some agreement on basic steps you can take to reduce the risk of having your machines join the army of the evil botnet undead.

  Written by John Dickinson • 29 March 07 12:02

• Six tips for Linux, open source desktop migrations

  Planning a migration from Windows PCs to Linux-based desktops is no small task. Here are six issues and strategies to consider before getting started.

  Written by Phil Hochmuth • 26 March 07 09:18

• Finding wireless devices doing MAC spoofing

  MAC spoofing on a wireless network creates an interesting problem - you want to locate the imposter, but how do you tell the different between it and the legitimate device from the network's perspective? Like Ethernet, 802.11 makes use of a device's MAC address to uniquely identify it on the network. However, it's trivial to change the MAC address of a wireless interface under most operating systems. While MAC spoofing can be detected it can be difficult to locate the offending device once you know it's occurring.

  Written by Andrew Lockhart • 20 March 07 13:00

• Vista on a stick: How to flash install your OS

  In a world where there's too much to do -- and too little time to do it in -- we're always looking for shortcuts. So when we stumbled upon a blog entry by Kurt Shintaku over on Windows Live Spaces that promised to let us install Vista from a flash drive instead of an optical disc, there was certainly interest.

  Written by Bill O'Brien • 19 March 07 13:54

• Security survival tips for the Web 2.0 world

  Corporate response to the influx of Web 2.0 technologies is as varied as companies themselves. Here are some tips for developing security policies and practices that best fit your company, from restrictions on social sites to rules on mini devices and instant messaging. Plus, we offer expert tips for communicating these new Web 2.0 policies to workers.

  Written by Computerworld Staff • 14 March 07 13:09

• Getting up to speed with VoIP

  One reader asks: "My company is expecting to make the move to VoIP in the next year or so. I would like to learn some basics before the move is made and hopefully be able to ask the rights questions as the selection is made. Without hocking the family jewels, is there a way that I can build some experience?"

  Written by Ron Nutter • 06 March 07 09:15

• Advice for starting server virtualization

  Virtualization -- the move to go from real, physical hardware to virtual hardware -- is being seen as one of the "next big things" in IT. There are more virtualization options for IT departments than ever before, including open-source applications from Xen and Virtual Iron; Microsoft's Virtual Server taking off like wildfire; and the venerable VMware products.

  Written by Jonathan Hassell • 05 March 07 10:39

• Simple steps to greening your data centre

  As heavy power users, IT departments have a key part to play in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. And apart from the environmental impact, they need to make sure they don't exhaust their capacity. A recent Gartner report notes that 50 percent of data centres will have insufficient power and cooling capacity by 2008.

  Written by Matt Mulligan • 28 Feb. 07 16:52