Tim Greene

You'd think Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. might be hitting its peak given that network security has become the top priority for so many IT shops. But the firewall/VPN company actually is facing some of its stiffest challenges.

Start-up Orbital Data Corp. is launching gear that it says boosts throughput on WAN connections 10 times or more by overcoming bottlenecks caused by the limitations of TCP.

When Jeff Geltz was chosen by his boss to attend an IT leadership development class, he wasn't thrilled by the idea.

Nortel Networks Corp. is opening up its Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) code to the public in an effort to promote interoperability with other vendors' gear, the company announced at the Supercomm trade show.

Lucent Technologies Inc. will plug a hole in its voice-over-IP (VoIP) offerings by buying Telica Inc. for its IP-gateway products.

Adtran Inc. is expanding its assault on low-end network gear for businesses, joining 3Com Corp., Enterasys Networks Inc. and others hoping to relieve Cisco Systems Inc. of some of its cost-conscious small- and midsize business customers.

NetScreen Technologies Inc. this week will roll out a security box that plugs a gap in its current firewall/VPN product line and introduced modular hardware that will let users more easily add security functions such as intrusion prevention.

Brix Networks Inc. on Tuesday turned on a Web site where users can test whether their Internet connection is likely to support good-quality voice over IP.