n The TeChNICIaNS Of The varIOUS CSI fraNChISeS aLWayS SeeM
to have the right tool of the trade to parse out the whos, the whats,
and the hows of any crime scene, but it can sometimes be hard to
buy such an easy solution. But the Azusa, California-based rugged
hardware vendor Acme Portable Machines has a machine straight out
of Gil Grissom’s lab that does double-duty as a valuable on-site tool for
IT technicians on the go.
The AFS-370 (priced at US$6,890) is a portable workstation
that allows forensic workers in the field to download evidence onto
a variety of drives, including SCSI, IDE, and SATA. According to
vice-president of sales Jimmy Chang, the device can copy data onto
the removable drive bays, which the technician can then examine in
the privacy and comfort of their own lab (rather than having to set
up an on-site operation). “It’s like a portable server with
back-up data storage,” he said. It runs on a 2. 13
GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 processor
and includes two gigabytes of RAM, three
detachable 500 gigabyte drives, and a fixed
120 gigabyte drive.
In addition to the use law enforcement, auditors,
private forensic agencies, and government agencies could
get out of it during an investigation, the workstation also would
benefit roving IT helpers looking to take sick hard drives back to the
workplace to mull over and fix. (Software is built-in to the product
that ensures that the files remain read-only, ensuring that critical
evidence isn’t written over.)
: the demo Technology features and functionality explained
Each IP phone can be managed and monitored separately to show quality of service,
activities and software load for each device.
The mean opinion score (MOS) is typically set
between levels 3. 6 and 4, said Charland. “MOS
is simply an aggregate measure or surrogate
for the call quality itself.” When the MOS goes
below the prescribed service level, the admin
can look at the levels for jitter, latency and lost
packets, which are impairing the voice call quality, he added.
The aluminum casing is super-tough,
with the internal hardware formulated
to be shock-resistant.
The 17-inch
screen shows
high-resolution
graphics of the
recorded data.
The three hot-swappable drives
are capable of
holding up to
500 gigabytes of
evidence each,
with another 120
gigabyte fixed drive
for extra oomph.
The workstation comes
equipped with gigabyte
Ethernet, plus USB and firewire, to
ensure smooth communication.
A MediaBlock card
reader can read a
variety of smart cards.
Can you hear me now?
n The SMar TS vOIP PerfOrMaNCe
Manager from EMC Corp. offers mid-size to large enterprises and managed
service providers a tool for managing
IP telephony deployments across the
company network. Released last month,
VoIP Performance Manager works with
both Avaya-based and Cisco-based
deployments and integrates with other
infrastructure management products for
easy administration, said Peter Charland,
senior product manager with EMC’s
resource management software group. It
provides visibility, from a single location,
into a phone’s performance and the user’s
quality of call and VoIP utilization, Charland said. “It also provides trend analysis
for purposes of capacity planning.”
From a single screen, the VoIP administrator
can move into any level of the VoIP Performance Manager’s capabilities. The configuration
parameter provides configuration data on any
of the supported IP phones and PBX environments, with options to add, edit, delete or manage. Using the “Browse” button, the admin can
browse the network to view how the IP telephony is configured in the network. The administrator can view alerts and notifications through
the “Troubleshoot” button, said Charland. “If
you want to set a threshold (whereby) if you
see a mean opinion score drop below a certain
service level, then an alert will be generated, and
in Troubleshooting I have a consolidated view of
any alerts and notifications,” he said.
