NTL blocks Net ports to stifle virus spread

NTL has decided to block a number of ports for its home Internet users in an attempt to prevent new worms from spreading. Ports 137 (UDP), 138 (UDP), 139 (TCP), 445 (UDP & TCP), 593 (TCP), 1433 (TCP), 1434 (UDP), 27374 (TCP) Inbound will be blocked. Although the Welchia and Blaster worms currently spread over port 135, NTL says it is blocking more in the event of virus writers creating variants. ...more

BT broadband XP drivers released

Alcatel, which makes the modems for BT's ADSL broadband Internet service - BTopenworld, has released the Windows XP drivers. The version 1.4 drivers, which will be available for Mac OS X at the beginning of November, apply to Alcatel's Speed Touch DSL modem range and are available from Alcatel UK's download site. ...more

Microsoft moves yet to appease dissident States

The amendments to the antitrust settlement submitted by Microsoft and the US Government which were intended to win favour with the nine outstanding US State have been rubbished and criticised as too weak. The nine States that have yet to agree to a settlement claim that the amendments, made in response to a period of public comments to the proposed settlement, do nothing to diminish the monopolistic power of Microsoft over the industry. In particular, the major concession of Microsoft has been its consent over the deletion of an entire clause of the proposed settlement, which State attorneys general had accused the company of using to allow it to use external hardware patents without paying for them. ...more

IBM to shed thousands of European jobs

IBM has announced it is to shed between 10,000 and 13,000 jobs worldwide, with the majority of the cuts planned for Europe. IBM was one of a number of technology companies to report gloomy quarterly financial figures back in April, and to help reduce overheads it is going to axe a pan-European management layer. The company is now looking to create a number of smaller local operating units in Europe, with the emphasis on direct client contact. ...more

Wheels in motion for GNU General Public License v3

The wheels have been set in motion for the first rewriting of the GNU General Public License (GPL) in more than 15 years, with the release of a document specifying the process and guidelines of the historic revision. The most important licence for free and open source software, the GPL underpins nearly three quarters of free software programs. The first draft up for discussion will be presented at the International Public Conference for GPL v3 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on 16 and 17 January 2006. ...more