Carolyn Duffy Marsan

The market for secure, business-grade instant messaging software is picking up steam, with several start-ups now offering packages that automatically encrypt real-time chat sessions between users. However, these packages do not yet offer secure communications with users of popular consumer-oriented IM systems from AOL Time Warner Inc., Microsoft Corp. and others.

The Internet's main standards-setting body is putting the final touches on a set of specifications that will support foreign-language domain names in addition to today's English language derivatives.

As the United States gets hit by the double-whammy of a war and a recession, the need to improve Internet security is more critical than ever, according to government and industry leaders speaking at a panel held Friday on Capitol Hill.

Allegro is developing what it calls a

The Internet Engineering Task Force has slammed the brakes on its plans to develop a common way of sending faxes over the Internet, due to last-minute licensing problems between rivals Adobe Systems Inc. and Xerox Corp.

The Internet Engineering Task Force has slammed the brakes on its plans to develop a common way of sending faxes over the Internet, due to last-minute licensing problems between rivals Adobe Systems Inc. and Xerox Corp.

An emerging communications protocol called SIMPLE is the front-runner to become the standard method for sharing online presence information and instant messages across the Internet, thanks to backing from market leaders AOL Time Warner Inc. and Microsoft Corp.

IBM Corp. is trying to corral network industry support for a new communications protocol that beefs up the reliability of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol underpinning most Web traffic.