A cable tester is an electronic device that is used to verify that a cable connection is reliable. Cable testers are often used in television and Internet applications to ensure that the customer’s service will function properly once all cables are connected to the appropriate devices. Cable testers can also be used to test electrical wires in houses, car engines, and virtually any device that includes a power cable or other electrical wiring. How Cable Testers Work Cable testers consist of a power source, a switching matrix, as well as Read More

DNS is the primary name registration and resolution service in Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003. It provides a hierarchically distributed and scalable database, name registration, name resolution and service location for Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003 clients, and locates domain controllers for logon. A DNS server is a computer running the DNS Server service that provides domain name services. The DNS server manages the DNS database that is located on it. The information in the DNS server’s database pertains to a portion of the DNS domain tree structure Read More

Domain and forest functional levels provide a means of enabling additional domain and forest-wide Active Directory features, remove outdated backward compatibility in an environment, and improve Active Directory performance and security. In Windows 2000, the terminology for domain functional levels was domain modes. Forests in Windows 2000 have one mode and domains can have the domain mode set as either mixed mode or native mode. With Windows Server 2003 Active Directory came the introduction of the Windows Server 2003 interim functional level and Windows Server 2003 functional level for both Read More

Password aging forces the user to change passwords after a system administrator-specified period of time. Password aging can also force a user to keep a password for a certain number of weeks before changing it. Sample entry from /etc/passwd with password aging installed: will:5fg63fhD3d,M.z8:9406:12:Will Spencer:/home/will:/bin/bash Note the comma in the encrypted password field. The characters after the comma are used by the password aging mechanism. The password aging characters from above example are: M.z8 The four characters are interpreted as follows: 1 Maximum number of weeks a password can be Read More

NAND drives are high-capacity, high-speed, solid-state flash memory drives. Thanks to new advances in technology, these drives have been chosen to become the latest drive preference for laptop computers (hopefully in the near future). When comparing the NAND to other types of flash memory, NAND drives have several noteworthy advantages. The term "NAND" refers to the architecture of the chip which differs it from NOR (NOT OR) flash memory. NOR flash memory is most widely used in devices in which small programs are executed in place rather than written to Read More

If you are like many other computer users, you might be watching more videos (including TV shows) on your computer. Whether at home, the office, or coffee shop, more people are ditching their TVs for their computers. One way to watch live TV broadcasts without having to connect to the Internet is with an HDTV tuner card. HDTV tuners are perfect for watching over the air Analog and HDTV broadcasts. Types of HDTV Tuner Cards There are two types of HDTV tuner cards. The first is the PCI card, which Read More

CCMP (Counter Mode with Cipher Block Chaining Message Authentication Code Protocol) is the preferred encryption protocol in the 802.11i standard. CCMP Cryptography CCMP is based upon the CCM mode of the AES encryption algorithm. CCMP utilizes 128-bit keys, with a 48-bit initialization vector (IV) for replay detection. The Components of CCMP The Counter Mode (CM) component of CCMP is the algorithm providing data privacy. The Cipher Block Chaining Message Authentication Code (CBC-MAC) component of CCMP provides data integrity and authentication. CCMP and RSN Unlike WRAP (Wireless Robust Authenticated Protocol), CCMP Read More

hsqldb HSQLDB is the leading SQL relational database engine written in Java. HSQLDB has a JDBC driver and supports a rich subset of ANSI-92 SQL (BNF tree format) plus SQL 99 and 2003 enhancements. HSQLDB offers a small (less than 100k in one version), fast database engine which offers both in-memory and disk-based tables. Embedded and server modes are available. Additionally, it includes tools such as a minimal web server, in-memory query and management tools (can be run as applets) and a number of demonstration examples. The product is currently Read More

Every office and small business needs a method of running multiple communication programs such as conference calling, video conferencing, media distribution, instant messaging, and account management software. To perform these tasks, servers need the help of a SIP gateway to bridge the gap between data streams and the Internet. SIP gateways are also essential in VoIP networks as they allow for mutiple audio and video connections to take place at one time over the Internet. Moreover, using a SIP gateway is an affordable and efficient method of networking in and Read More

Many cell phone users remain confused on what it means to unlock a phone. Most commonly, this term is used to describe the process of removing restrictions placed on using a GSM cell phone by the manufacturer. These restrictions are intended to prevent the mobile phone from being used on competing cell phone carriers or to limit what applications can be installed on the phone. As a result, if the consumer desires to use their phone outside of the local coverage area, high roaming charges can result. These charges only Read More