How important is IM? was RE: How important is the PSTN

Scott Weeks surfer at mauislanwanman.com
Tue Jun 25 20:33:10 UTC 2002




On Tue, 25 Jun 2002, Daniel Golding wrote:

:
: Christopher,
:
: There are three questions here - are IM programs a security risk, is number
: one. The second is, how does IM come into the network support/communications
: equation. The third is, how much time gets wasted using IM or IRC?
:
: Peer to peer file sharing probably has no place in the business world. It's
: a leisure thing, and can open you up to liability. On the other hand, who
: wants to be the software police, more than is absolutely necessary?



Deloitte & Touche doesn't seem to think so.  They use

   "NextPage's NXT 3 platform to enable its employees to access, exchange,
    and manage distributed content-including large documents and
    directories of accounting regulations and best practices-as if the
    content were all in a single location. Through a series of content
    servers linked to form a peer-to-peer content network, users can
    search, navigate, and categorize data more quickly, easily, and
    securely than before. They don't need to replicate or convert the data
    from its original format."

http://networkmagazine.com/article/NMG20020429S0001


scott





:
: As far as IM and IRC - many folks find them vital to running and
: troubleshooting networks, communicating with customers, etc.  They can be
: timewasters, but no more so than abuse of the telephone can be. It's not so
: much the tool, as the use of the tool that should be a matter of concern.
:
: IRC servers are significant security concerns. IRC Clients, coming from
: behind firewalls, less so. Some folks implement private IRC servers bound to
: localhost, behind firewalls, for internal use. This is much more secure. IM
: tends to be insecure, as it's in cleartext, although encryption extensions
: exist. Of course, most of your email is probably cleartext, too. A bigger
: concern is that the servers live on someone else's network, so an outage
: there may effect your operations.
:
: - Daniel Golding
:
: > -----Original Message-----
: > From: owner-nanog at merit.edu [mailto:owner-nanog at merit.edu]On Behalf Of
: > Christopher J. Wolff
: > Sent: Tuesday, June 25, 2002 3:17 PM
: > To: nanog at merit.edu
: > Subject: How important is IM? was RE: How important is the PSTN
: >
: >
: >
: > Jane,
: >
: > This brings up a good point about IM.  IMHO, IM is a security
: > risk and I am
: > establishing a company standard where users behind the firewall are
: > prohibited from using IM, IRC, and peer-to-peer file sharing programs.  My
: > opinion is that these types of programs contribute more to lack of
: > productivity than to real problem solving.
: >
: > So my question for the group is, do chat programs (IM, IRC, yahoo) serve a
: > substantial network support purpose or are they more of a distraction,
: > allowing staff to communicate with friends, relatives, drifters,
: > interlopers
: > on company time?
: >
: > Regards,
: > Christopher J. Wolff, VP CIO
: > Broadband Laboratories
: > http://www.bblabs.com
: >
: > -----Original Message-----
: > From: owner-nanog at merit.edu [mailto:owner-nanog at merit.edu]On Behalf Of
: > Pawlukiewicz Jane
: > Sent: Tuesday, June 25, 2002 12:06 PM
: > To: nanog at merit.edu
: > Subject: How important is the PSTN
: >
: >
: > Hi all,
: >
: > Thanks so much for all the great answers. (Could everyone please stop
: > telling me that im = instant messaging). I knew I should've never gotten
: > out of bed this morning.
: >
: > Anyway, 75% of the respondents said the phone is critical. 25% said some
: > form of IM is critical.
: >
: > Just in case anyone was curious.
: >
: > Is it me or is it very quiet in here today?
: >
: > Jane
: >
: >
:
:




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