Idea for Novell: ZENworks for IM?

NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: DAVE KEARNS ON NOVELL NETWARE TIPS
09/15/05
Today's focus: Idea for Novell: ZENworks for IM?

Dear networking.world@gmail.com,

In this issue:

* Reader calls for a ZENworks module for instant messaging
* Links related to Novell NetWare Tips
* Featured reader resource
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Today's focus: Idea for Novell: ZENworks for IM?

By Dave Kearns

Last issue, I was talking about reader mail in response to last
month's newsletter about the new ZENworks 7 suite. One note I
got, from a reader in New Zealand, proposed that what was really
needed was a new "ZEN," one for instant messaging. That brought
back memories, some good and some not so good, going back over
my 20 years with NetWare.

I'm not sure if Novell claims to have invented instant
messaging, but it's certainly been present in every version of
NetWare I've ever used. Those short text messages, often called
"broadcasts", which appear at the bottom of the screen. They
originated back in the days of all DOS clients (even before
Windows 1.0 was available) by taking advantage of an often
overlooked element of the DOS operating system.

Although the screen could display 25 lines and 80 columns on the
typical PC screen, whenever the 80th position on the 24th line
was written to and the cursor advanced to, the screen would
scroll up one line. Applications, thus, were only writing 24
lines of text. There were system calls that could be made to put
the cursor at the first position on the 25th line without
scrolling the screen, and the bright folks who created NetWare
took advantage of this to institute a method for the network
manager to communicate with the users. The server itself would
issue messages to the clients ("Warning! Server going down in 5
minutes!"), or the administrator could do it manually ("Log off
now!"). Messages could even be sent to particular users or
groups ("Justin, log off now!!"). This was a great tool - when
used for the good. The problem was that any user could use the
tool to communicate with any other user. Worse, users quickly
discovered that they could embed backspaces in their message so
that no one could tell who was sending it. A cottage industry
grew up trying to find the right tools and utilities to control
25th line messaging.

There were some limits to the messaging, specifically in the
amount of text that could be entered and the ability to engage
in actual conversations (and scroll back and forth through the
text). Jump forward to the 21st century, and other developers
such as Yahoo, AOL, ICQ and MSN have solved those problems.
Instant messaging is not only something teenagers do with their
cell phones, but what millions of computer users around the
world use to keep in touch with an immediacy not present in
e-mail. The traffic as well as some of the content that IM can
cause, though, is something many network managers want to
control.

When Novell rolled out the "Digitalme" project some years ago,
it announced a plan to work with AOL to deliver "Instantme" to
the desktop
<http://www.novell.com/news/press/archive/1999/10/pr99125.html>,
an instant messaging solution which never got off the ground.

But Milan, in Auckland, suggests that Google's recent
announcement of an open source IM client
<http://www.networkworld.com/news/2005/082905-google.html?rl>
coupled with Novell's embrace of all-things open-source could
make for a fertile ground to grow a new Open Enterprise Server
feature, and a new ZENworks module - ZEN for IM. ZENworks is the
tool network managers like to use to control their networks. IM
is an application that users want but managers want to control.
I do hope Novell is listening.

The top 5: Today's most-read stories

1. McAfee, Omniquad top anti-spyware test
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlnovell6964>

2. Google hacking <http://www.networkworld.com/nlnovell6690>

3. Supermarket chain freezes Internet access
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlnovell6637>

4. Cisco tackles RFID in the network
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlnovell7090>

5. What's the best way to protect against spyware?
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlnovell6965>

_______________________________________________________________
To contact: Dave Kearns

Dave Kearns is a writer and consultant in Silicon Valley. He's
written a number of books including the (sadly) now out of print
"Peter Norton's Complete Guide to Networks." His musings can be
found at Virtual Quill <http://www.vquill.com/>.

Kearns is the author of three Network World Newsletters: Windows
Networking Tips, Novell NetWare Tips, and Identity Management.
Comments about these newsletters should be sent to him at these

respective addresses: <mailto:windows@vquill.com>,
<mailto:netware@vquill.com>, <mailto:identity@vquill.com>.

Kearns provides content services to network vendors: books,
manuals, white papers, lectures and seminars, marketing,
technical marketing and support documents. Virtual Quill
provides "words to sell by..." Find out more by e-mail at
<mailto:info@vquill.com>
_______________________________________________________________
This newsletter is sponsored by HP
FROM THE NETWORK CORE TO THE NETWORK EDGE

Traffic management becomes critical as your network
infrastructure expands to support different types of traffic and
users. Most traffic management solutions have serious
limitations: too expensive, difficult to use, and overly taxing
on bandwidth. However ProCurve Networking by HP addresses these
requirements, overcomes the limitations of other solutions, and
gives you valuable insight into LAN performance.
http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=114163
_______________________________________________________________
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Novell news page:
http://www.networkworld.com/news/financial/novell.html
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FEATURED READER RESOURCE

IS IT THE NETWORK OR THE STORAGE THAT'S THE PROBLEM?

Midsize and larger businesses often find their IT topology has
become a complex mix of servers, networks and storage systems.
Many of these companies also route long-haul traffic over
fiber-based networks - metropolitan-area networks, WANs and
private optical networks. Who's responsible when a
storage-related problem occurs on a fiber network? For more,
click here:

<http://www.networkworld.com/nlnovell7091>
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