Pubs raise the bar - from community hubs to digital hubs

Pubs in Northumberland and Dorset are being fitted up with broadband access and computers at the launch of a new project by the Countryside Agency, Department for Education & Skills (DfES) and Locals on Line. Launched at the unlikely-named venue of the Piddle Inn in Piddletrenthide, Countryside Agency chairman Sir Ewen Cameron talked of his hopes that this scheme would help bridge the digital divide between urban and rural areas. 'Two thirds of the population overall can access affordable broadband Internet, but this drops to a quarter in market towns, 7 per cent in rural villages and only 1 per cent in remote rural areas. ...more

BT cracks down on broadband data gluttons

BT is cracking down on data gluttons, notifying around 3,000 of its broadband users that they will either have to cut down or pay up for excessive use of its broadband connections. It says it is targeting subscribers that are downloading up to 200GB every month. Current limits to its broadband offerings range between 2 and 40GB per month. ...more

Sun launches two new servers

Sun Microsystems has announced the launch of two new servers. The new machines are based around the UltraSparc T1 processors formerly codenamed 'Niagara' that the company announced last month. The new servers, known as T1000 and T2000 are aimed at filling the racks of ISPs and are claimed to offer both better performance as well as lower power consumption. ...more

Cisco flags DoS security alert

Cisco Systems has issued a security advisory for Cisco IOS, its widely-deployed network operating system. A vulnerability has been discovered for devices running IOS, such as routers and switches. Cisco reports that specially crafted IPv4 packets can be sent to devices that stops them processing other packets on that interface. ...more

Pop-ups bad for brand image, say researchers

Pop-up advertisements are not only irritating to Web users, but new research has found that they can also create a bad image for both the website hosting the ad and the brand it is supposed to be promoting. UK-based Bunnyfoot Universality conducted research on 36 individuals using equipment to track precisely where their eyes went on screen and how long they lingered at each specific place. Amongst the results, it found that the company name was seen in just two per cent of the pop-ups, 50 per cent of ads were closed before they had finished loading and 35 per cent were ignored completely. ...more