Recent tests

Adobe Premiere Elements and Photoshop 7
Jul. 03, 2009
If you're not ready or willing to drop a large chunk of change on Adobe Creative Suite 4, you may want to consider Adobe Premiere Elements 7 and Adobe Photoshop Elements 7.

Pushing VoIP over your SSL VPN will help serve up call quality to remote sites
Jul. 10, 2009

Cloud control systems tame the ether
Jul. 02, 2009
Signifying a formless haze of computing power and storage that is somewhere "out there," computerdom's current buzzword is as difficult to get one's arms around as a real cloud. A seemingly limitless pool of processors ...

10 free WordPress plug-ins make blogging better
Jul. 01, 2009
Bloggers who use WordPress have access to a plethora of plug-ins. A WordPress expert describes some of his favorites.

5 free apps that make project management easier
Jun. 30, 2009
Putting together a project plan can sometimes seem more daunting than completing the project itself. When you need to track each step of a project, along with your costs, staff, and other factors, you probably need a ...

Review: Firefox 3.5 makes browsing faster, easier and more fun
Jun. 30, 2009
Mozilla's new Firefox 3.5 puts this popular browser ahead of the pack with significantly better performance, improved tab handling and a number of nifty new features.

First look: Microsoft Office 2010
Jun. 30, 2009
Call it serendipity. As I was working through my review of OpenOffice.org 3.1 and SoftMaker Office 2008, an early version of the Community Technology Preview (CTP) of Microsoft Office 2010 was conveniently leaked to the ...

Why is Microsoft Office so hard to kill?
Jun. 30, 2009
It's the question that vexes free open source software advocates and commercial competitors around the globe: Why is Microsoft Office so difficult to dislodge from its perch atop the IT heap? Is it the exclusive ...

Office-compatibility torture test
Jun. 30, 2009
In InfoWorld's tests using complex Word and Excel documents, OpenOffice.org 3.1 failed to deliver on its promise of better Microsoft Office interoperability, severely mangling our Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel test ...

The many faces of OpenOffice
Jun. 30, 2009
A chameleon: That's what I think of when I ponder the myriad variations on the OpenOffice.org theme that have cropped up in recent years. Ever since Sun Microsystems decided to release the StarOffice source code into ...

iPhone 3GS: refinement in stylish package
Jun. 26, 2009
It's been a busy June for Apple, starting with its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) and the release of new laptops, following that on June 17 with the release of the iPhone OS 3.0 operating system and capping it ...

Bending the back office: Open source CRM and ERP
Jun. 25, 2009
The back office for any company requires many different layers of software. Essentials like e-mail and a basic Web site are relatively simple commodities to run. The hardest job is delivering the kind of software that ...

Motorola SiteScanner: Tuned for analytical measurement
Jun. 22, 2009
SiteScanner is a cousin of Motorola's LANPlanner, with a very similar layout and user interface, but designed just for analytical measurement and visualization. Like LANPlanner, however, work begins with importing a ...

VisiWave Site Survey SO: Solid 3D features
Jun. 22, 2009
VisiWave Site Survey allows the user to import graphical floor plans of the area under consideration, and to manually place APs in the model.

Motorola LANPlanner: Feature-rich hybrid tool
Jun. 22, 2009
LANPlanner is a direct descendent of one of the original WLAN predictive tools from RF modeling pioneer Wireless Valley, acquired by Motorola. This is a very robust product, and, like all planning tools, perhaps a bit ...

Nuts About Nets AirHORN: Signal generator for predictive testing
Jun. 22, 2009
AirHORN isn't a site survey tool in the sense of the other products reviewed here; rather, it's signal generator packaged as a USB dongle with, in the model we tested, an external antenna.

Psiber RF3D WiFiPlanner: Covers the basics
Jun. 22, 2009
It's easy to import building floor plans in .jpg, .bmp, or .png format into RF3D WiFiPlanner, and, similarly, it's easy to correct for rotation or skewing and to align floors on top of each other. One then defines the ...

What WLAN site survey tools to use when
Jun. 22, 2009
Deciding which class of tool to use can be a challenge, and there is no easy way, unfortunately, to simplify this selection. All of the site-survey tools discussed in this review are quite capable of meeting the needs ...

AirMagnet Survey Pro: A site survey powerhouse
Jun. 22, 2009
AirMagnet's robust site-survey product, Survey (sometimes in the documentation called Surveyor) offers an optional Planner Module that results in a combined predictive/analytical powerhouse.

Before you deploy APs, use these tools for coverage and capacity planning
Jun. 22, 2009
The pre-installation site survey has long been a core element of wireless-LAN deployments. The concept is simple: set up an access point, and, running a site-survey application on a mobile computer, walk around, noting ...

HP BladeSystem Matrix
Jun. 17, 2009
During the Big Dig, the city of Boston erected a sign saying, "Rome wasn't built in a day. If it was, we would have hired their contractor." That's a good way to describe the general state of affairs regarding the ideal ...

VMware upgrade reaches for the clouds
Jun. 15, 2009
VMware's vSphere 4.0 is a massive update to VMware's flagship hypervisor and management toolset which will put significant pressure on Microsoft and the Xen development community.

Adobe Flash, Flex ignite with Flash Catalyst
Jun. 15, 2009
If only it were as easy to build a Web application as it is to design one in Illustrator and Photoshop. Maybe it will be someday, and maybe that someday is closer than we might think. Adobe has certainly succeeded in ...

BlackBerry Visor Mount Speakerphone VM-605
Jun. 11, 2009
Just a few years back, Research In Motion (RIM) produced just one product, albeit in many flavors: BlackBerry smartphones for businesspeople. Today, RIM has extended its reach into the consumer market with devices like ...

Ubuntu Server: Lean, mean, cloud-making machine
Jun. 01, 2009
Ubuntu Server is a fast, free, no-frills Linux distribution that fills a niche between utilitarian Debian and the GUI-driven and, some would argue, over-featured Novell SUSE and Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

  1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9  10   

Clear Choice Tests by category

Applications
Collaboration, E-mail, Instant messaging, Multimedia.

Convergence / VoIP

E-commerce

Data Center
Servers

LANs

Net/Systems Mgmt.

Operating Systems
Linux, NetWare, Windows

Routers/Switches
Switches

Security
Firewalls, Intrusion prevention/detection, Patch mgmt., VoIP, VPNs

Storage

Wide Area Network

Wireless/Mobile

Network World Lab Alliance

Network World Lab Alliance members have years of experience reviewing networking products and work to construct real-world test beds for the products they test. Look for the Lab Alliance logo on reviews, or get more information on our Lab Alliance reviewers.

Ethical testing policy

All Network World reviews are based on hands-on testing conducted by independent testers who belong to the Network World Lab Alliance. All tests are commissioned and paid for solely by Network World. No reviewer may accept any form of compensation from a vendor in the course of reviewing one of the vendor's products.

As standard operating procedure, Network World issues an invitation letter to all vendors whose products we're requesting for a given review. In it, we request the materials we need them to supply, answer their questions about our policies, and inform them of our deadlines.

Typically we ask vendors for products, and they provide them for review. However, we reserve the right to review products we acquire through other channels, including purchase. If we test a product a vendor has not tendered us, we notify the vendor of that fact. Once a vendor has sent a product we will review it and publish an article on that testing, unless we find technical problems that make it impossible for us to complete the process.

We try to review currently available production code for all products, because it represents what's available to our readers. However, we will look at beta code in the early stages of the review process in order to speed our final evaluation of the gold or released code.

For high-end hardware and software, we offer vendors the opportunity to visit the testing site to help us configure their products. If we invite one vendor, we issue the invitation to all vendors participating, though not all will choose to avail themselves of the opportunity.

If a reviewer uncovers performance results that deviate from our expectations, we advise that tester to contact the vendor and share his or her findings with the vendor in question. This gives the vendor the opportunity to verify our findings independently. We want to make sure that any unusual results we uncover can be attributed to the product and not to errors in our testing procedures. Where appropriate, we can include the vendor's feedback in a review to explain unexpected results. However, vendors' requests to read the text of a review article before it appears in print are not granted, and no vendor may influence the test results.

We respond immediately to vendors or readers who question our results or methodology. Accuracy is the primary criterion for every review, and any time we fail to meet that criterion, we make the appropriate corrections on our Web site and in print.

• Dramatically simplify DR planning in your virtual environment.- NetApp
• Enter the Great NetScaler VPX Challenge!- Citrix
• The end of phone tag. Sprint Mobile Integration. - Sprint
• Automate mobile management and get your email, calendar and device issues under control.- Zenprise
• Identity Management Solution Center: guides, informative downloads, videos, and more.- Sun Microsystems
• Sun Identity Management - simple, open and proven solutions- Sun Microsystems
• Make Apps Internet ready. Visit the Application Performance Solution Center- Akamai
• Solution Center: Application Performance - A portfolio of services.- Akamai
• MovinCool, the world's largest manufacturer of commercial spot air conditioners.- MovinCool
• Protect your network against threats with innovative Cisco security systems.- Cisco Systems