networking

You can buy the coolest and most advanced smartphone out there. But if you can't get a wireless signal, it's not worth much to you.

In this edition of Ask Maggie, I offer some advice to a reader about picking a wireless service provider based on which one offers the best coverage. I also explain to another reader why, even though the Verizon iPhone 5 is unlocked, it won't work on any other 4G LTE networks.

Dear Maggie, I've loved my iPhone ever since I got it in June last year, and absolutely … Read more

YouTube began gently prodding all users operating under nicknames like cutepuppies99 and origamiboys1981 to start using their real names last July. It did this by urging them to hook their Google Plus profiles up with their YouTube channel and therefore, by default, they'd have to use their real names.

Now, the video service is letting users keep their anonymous name but is still giving them the option of linking to their Google+ page. It's even giving people the option of changing their Google+ name to match their YouTube channel identity.

"While using a full name from a … Read more

The three colleagues who created the cloud-networking and Wi-Fi startup Meraki at MIT's Laboratory for Computer Science six years ago were not expecting to be acquired by Cisco Systems. But the tech giant announced today its intent to buy the startup saying it plans to throw down $1.2 billion in cash, along with retention-based incentives.

"The acquisition of Meraki enables Cisco to make simple, secure, cloud managed networks available to our global customer base of mid-sized businesses and enterprises," Cisco's Enterprise Networking Group senior vice president Rob Soderbery said in a statement. "Meraki's … Read more

Editors' note: This post is part of an ongoing series. For the other parts, check out the related stories.

Now that you have some ideas about internal storage vs. memory after reading Part 1, here in Part 2 I'll talk about the two main types of external storage devices: direct-attached storage (DAS) and network-attached storage (NAS).

DAS and NAS share a few things in common. They both use one or more internal drives (hard drives or SSDs) on the inside, and they utilize the same methods to combine drives' storage space (when multiple drives are used). But before we … Read more

The deal is sealed -- Apple has bought 1,024 patents and patent applications from the Rockstar Consortium.

According to Business Insider, the Rockstar Consortium has been quietly passing the patents to the tech giant over the past six months.

The announcement comes via Korean news agency Yonhap News, which reported that a Korean regulator confirmed that the patents and patent applications were transferred from the consortium to Apple. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office database also confirms that the patents were transferred.

Rockstar Consortium is a group of companies -- Apple, EMC, Ericsson, Microsoft, Research In Motion, and … Read more

A laptop, an inexpensive transmitter, and a little technical knowledge is all that's necessary to take down the high-speed wireless data networks that are being embraced as the future of wireless communications, researchers warn.

As wireless consumers are increasingly doing more with their smartphones, demand for faster, persistent connections is also growing. Boasting speeds four times as fast as current 3G networks, long-term evolution (LTE) is being deployed across the country by every wireless carrier in the United States. Verizon, which was the first national carrier to launch LTE, expects to have the networks in 400 markets by the … Read more

Google and the satellite TV company Dish Network met recently to discuss a new wireless service that would pit it against giants like AT&T and Verizon, The Wall Street Journal is reporting.

The talks were not "advanced" and may not go anywhere, the Journal said.

Dish has made clear over the past year that it would like to build out a wireless network using spectrum that it has been acquiring since 2008.

The full story is here (subscription required).

We don't know where, we don't know when, but we do know for sure that disaster will strike. The only thing we can do is prepare for a day we hope never arrives: the day something turns our world upside-down, as Sandy has done for so many people in New York, New Jersey, and other parts of the East Coast.

You can help your neighborhood get ready for whatever calamity fate may have in store by creating a neighbor social network that links to emergency-preparedness information customized to your locality. The free Nextdoor private social network launched recently … Read more

Cisco shares rose by 6.8 percent on Tuesday after the bell as the networking giant published a rather solid earnings report for the first fiscal quarter of 2013.

The San Jose, Calif., based corporation reported a net income of $2.1 billion, or 39 cents a share (statement). Non-GAAP earnings were 48 cents a share on a revenue of $11.9 billion -- up by 6 percent on an annual basis.Wall Street was expecting Cisco to report first quarter earnings of 46 cents per share on revenue of $11.78 billion.Cisco chairman and CEO John Chambers asserted … Read more