23-08-2004 • VOLUME 7 • NUMBER 31 • £2.60
WWW.ITWEEK.CO.UK
15 ENTERPRISE Cutting-edge
tools for filtering out spam
23 CLIENT Keeping
mobile staff in sync
27 NETWORK Would your
IT survive a lightning strike?
CONTENTS
ENTERPRISEWEEK
HP speeds up chips and servers 15
Is Sun set to strengthen Solaris? 16
SCO reveals plans for the future 16
INTERNETWEEK
Phishing scammers hit businesses 19
Web site analyser identifies flaws 20
CLIENTWEEK
Wyse thin clients to back Linux 23
Intel adds 64bit punch to P4 chip 23
Windows and the virtual desktop 24
NETWORKWEEK
3Com offers smarter WLAN kit 25
Cheaper 10Gbit/s NICs launched 25
NI suite identifies wireless threats 28
MANAGEMENTWEEK
Job prospects for graduates in IT 31
Online tools to help governance 31
How to manage office messaging 32
Microsoft sugars UK deals
Martin Veitch
M
icrosoft will next month sign a
new three-year memorandum of
understanding (MoU) setting out
its sales terms for government IT buyers, and
adding bundled services while maintaining
current price guarantees. But open-source
software could yet make progress in the corridors of power as a report on pilot projects
will appear at about the same time.
Last week, Microsoft revealed details of
how it had persuaded the London Borough
of Newham to stay with Microsoft for desktops and tablets after examining Linux. The
announcement was followed by Microsoft’s
disclosure that the second MoU with state
procurement wing the Office of Government
Commerce (OGC) is imminent.
The first MoU is due to expire on 28
February 2005 and the OGC appeared to
be looking favourably at open-source alternatives by undertaking a series of software
pilots with IBM last year. A report on those
projects is expected next month.
An OGC spokesman said the renewed
smaller boroughs could not do that
on their own,” the OGC spokesman said. “The MoU has brought
the benchmark down.”
However, open-source proponents criticised Microsoft’s tactics,
Microsoft and
Plan for second
OGC unveils
saying it had undercut the current
OGC agree on
nine open-source MoU, bundling
MoU to keep Newham onside.
‘lowest price’ deal evaluation sites
free services
Ben Bulpett, sales director of
Linux vendor Novell, said the new
MoU “puts question marks over the idea
MoU has not yet been signed off but is
that the OGC wants to avoid lock-in” by
expected to be agreed in September. While
focusing on one desktop environment.
the first MoU was seen as a way for the
Microsoft said the Newham licensing terms
OGC to reduce cost by obtaining a “lowest
“are based on the OGC agreement and are
price guarantee”, the second is expected to
available to all local authorities”.
include consultancy, training, support,
Although major buyers are succeeding
maintenance and the option for governin gaining discounts from Microsoft, some
ment buyers to take “holidays” from confirms may be overplaying their hands.
tracts without losing the original terms.
“We hear a lot of clients saying, ‘we’re
Although Newham has in effect undergoing to use the threat of Linux’, but Miccut MoU pricing through an individually
rosoft can see through it because these firms
brokered agreement, the OGC believes the
are not making a convincing case,” said Jon
MoU still has an important role.“Boroughs
Mein of analyst firm Gartner.
like Newham and Waltham Forest have
hefty budgets. It’s conceivable they could go
OGC deal, p6 Microsoft and IBM, p9
to Microsoft and negotiate lower prices, but
Windows XP Service Pack 2 flaws, p10
MICROSOFT AGREES TERMS WITH WHITEHALL
Laptop lasts
on the road
ADSL extends coverage
Samsung’s new P35 laptop
boasts a long battery life for
a model with a 15in screen,
making it suitable for sales
staff who need to give
presentations at customer sites. It is
priced from £1,499
P35 runs for
+ VAT. It also fea3 hours 45 mins
tures a built-in sensor for fingerprint access control.
Full review of Samsung’s laptop, p24
www.samsung.co.uk
L
Martin Courtney
ast week BT moved closer to its goal of
offering broadband coverage to 99 percent of UK homes by extending the reach of
its 512kbit/s and 1Mbit/s lines.
From 6 September, subscribers to basic
512kbit/s services can be located within
10km rather than 6km of a BT telephone
exchange. This extended range encompasses almost everybody able to get a BT telephone service, though the local exchanges
must first be enabled for broadband, said
BT chief broadband officer Alison Ritchie.
Faster 1Mbit/s services will be extended
to those living within 6km of an exchange,
up from the previous limit of 4km.
“There will be some instances where the
distance to customers is still too far for
acceptable service, but from our trial, we
estimate this will be only 0.2 percent of UK
households,” said BT spokesman David Orr.
Howard Rippiner of
broadband service provider Eclipse Internet,
which helped BT test
extended-reach services
in Milton Keynes, said,
“BT has not changed the
Ritchie: coverage
for almost everyone
Oracle fixes
go monthly
Oracle plans to follow Microsoft by
moving to a monthly release schedule
for its security patches.
An Oracle spokeswoman said the
monthly model – providing a single
patch with multiple fixes on a set date
– will make life easier for IT staff.
Microsoft moved to a similar system
last October, and now releases a fix
bundle on the second Tuesday of each
month. Oracle has not yet said when
the new scheme will begin.
Gunter Ollmann, professional services director at security research
firm NGS Software, said his clients
preferred the monthly model.“But it’s
important the schedule can be bypassed if a critical patch is available.”
The move follows criticism that
Oracle has not yet released patches
for security flaws discovered in January.The patches are likely to arrive by
the end of August, said the firm.
Leader, p12 Oracle patches, p15
lines in the ground, but it is using improved
equipment to reduce the signal loss [that
degrades transmissions over long cables].”
BT engineers will not charge to install a
face plate – which attaches to the phone
socket and filters the ADSL signal from any
extension wiring – but there may be a fee if
changes to extension wiring are needed.
In some instances even homes within
the required range may still be unable to get
broadband services if the telephone cables
connecting them to the exchange are of a
low quality. However, this will only affect “a
very small number of cases”, said Orr.
Broadband providers, including Eclipse,
Zen Internet and Plusnet, are accepting
orders from buyers now able to get 512kbit/s
services, with pricing from £18 a month.
ADSL comes home, p12 www.bt.com
NEWS INSIDE: SERVERS HP vs Sun, p4 • ROUTERS Costs, p4 • WI-FI Kit, p6 • PATCHING Net viruses, p9 • XP SP2 Latest, p10 • JUNK EMAIL Threats, p10