"An inexperienced mail administrator who installs [IPSwitch IMail] and exposes it to the Internet turns his company into a free spam-broadcasting service." --Cameron Spitzer The Green Internet Society
'Mindcrafty'
I read Art Wittmann's column on Mindcraft ("Lies, Damn Lies and Benchmarks," May 31, 1999, page 162) with great interest. Those of us who follow Novell and NetWare have known of this company for some months.
I guess Mindcraft decided that since it pulled its stunt on NetWare with reasonable success (according to Microsoft press, anyway) it would try it on Linux/Apache. You can find a couple of Novell rebuttals of Mindcraft 'benchmarks' on Novell's site, including one at www.novell.com/advantage/nw5/nw5-mindcraftcheck.html.
Kevin Wade Network Consultant
Genesis Data Systems
kmwade@gendatasys.com
Give Him an A+
Regarding Dave Molta's May 17 "Net Results" column ("Network Management: Going Back to School," page 27): Not only are you addressing the right issues in your curriculum, but the summary of your opinions seems right on target as well. In fact, yours is the first article that I have printed out and shared with my manager and coworkers.
Tom Perkins Network Analyst
Hill-Rom Co.
Tom.perkins@hill-rom.com
Linux Time?
Windows NT and Linux need sober, unbiased coverage. I thoroughly enjoyed your article "Is It Time for Linux?" (May 31, 1999, page 54). I am a fan of Linux, and I use NT at work. I have been pushing Linux to handle some of the smaller tasks at work, and so far so good. Thank you for your honest analysis.
John Sheehan System Analyst
County of Schenectady Information Services
schdysys@capital.net
I just finished reading your article, "Is It Time for Linux?" This was a helpful piece. It really brought me up to date with the current state of Linux issues. Thanks!
Michael J. Cunningham Solaris/Linux System Administrator
Consultant
malice@exit109.com
Flunked for Spamming Potential?
The default "out-of-the-box" configuration of IPSwitch IMail is a promiscuous SMTP relay ("NTMail Outpaces Solid Pack of IMAP E-Mail Servers," May 3, 1999, page 101). An inexperienced mail administrator who installs this product and exposes it to the Internet turns his company into a free spam-broadcasting service, available to any porno pimp or stock scammer who comes along. And they come along all the time.
Modern MTAs install with relaying disabled (a significant fraction of my spam load is relayed through IPSwitch's MTA). I called IPSwitch and the product manager told me he didn't consider this a bug and the company doesn't intend to fix it. The product should have flunked your review for installing in an unsafe condition.
Cameron Spitzer Coordinator
The Green Internet Society
cis@greens.org
Enterprise-worthy Report
Let me congratulate you on your insightful article, "Scoring the Heavy Hitters" (www.networkcomputing.com/1003/1003f1.html), and thank you for undertaking the Herculean task of comparing enterprise systems management products. In my previous role as an IS director for Blue Cross, I inherited a fledgling project to implement: Tivoli TME10. What an adventure!
Having recently joined Unisys, I am considering the options and alternatives that provide the control, centralization and automation each of the vendors says it has. Put another way, I'm trying to decide if I should try Computer Associates' TNG this time or give Tivoli's new release a chance.
With that as background, your advice to wait because it has to get better really captured my thoughts. Do you plan to update your product evaluations, as both CA and Tivoli have come out with new and improved, lighter, more focused products?
John McCarroll Director of Applications & Architecture
Unisys
john.mccarroll@unisys.com
Bruce Boardman responds: Yes, we plan to cover the new products from Tivoli and Computer Associates, as well as those from other network and systems management vendors. Smaller vendors are producing functionality that rivals the frameworks vendors' attempts to go "lite."
Finally, Finding Firewall Answers
I just wanted to send you thanks for your article, "7 Firewalls Fit for Your Enterprise" (www.networkcomputing.com/921/ 921f2.html). Our company is on the verge of getting direct Internet access, and I've taken it upon myself to research firewall technology. After reading your article, I have a better understanding of the different solutions that have been quoted to us by various vendors. This was exactly the type of detail I needed.
Andre Kuschell Network Administrator
Florstar Sales
Akuschell@florstar.com
Correction
In our recent evaluation of Web-caching products ("Speedy Performance, Rock-Bottom Price Put Squid Freeware on Top," May 31, 1999, page 84), we used the Web Polygraph benchmarks for our performance testing, but we chose a scenario that was not a perfect model of real-life Web caching, and we used a best-effort workload with the benchmarks, which was also not ideal.
We regret that our performance numbers were not as realistic as we would have hoped. Performance criteria comprised only 10 percent of the total, so this did not weigh heavily in the overall score of the products tested--although we realize that many of you might rate performance higher. We will be retesting these products, and others, in future issues.
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