Brian McWilliams

Rogers@Home, the Toronto-based cable-based Internet access provider, was accused Wednesday of spamming dial-up Internet users. The division of Rogers Communications Inc. mass-mailed an email solicitation with the subject line “Here is your chance!” to an unknown number of recipients in Canada, inviting them to “join the cable Internet revolution.” Among those who received the e-mail […]

Bulgarian browser bugmeister Georgi Guninski is at it again. The 27-year-old independent computer consultant has discovered a new security flaw affecting Internet Explorer 5, which enables a malicious hacker to place a program on the victim’s hard disk, to be executed at the next reboot. Guninski is credited by Microsoft with discovering and publicizing a […]

Reversing an earlier policy, Network Solutions plans to open up Whois, its popular domain look-up site, to advertisers. NSI Monday told InternetNews Radio it is working with ad firm DoubleClick to solicit Web hosting companies and Internet service providers as Whois advertisers, with banner ad runs to begin in September. While the domain registrar wouldn’t […]

The recent hack of a notorious anti-gay website should spur Web site owners to take action to prevent similar domain name hijackings, Internet experts warned Friday. Late Wednesday afternoon, ownership of godhatesfags.com, a site operated by the family of Pastor Fred Phelps, was surreptitiously transferred to Kris Haight, systems administrator for Sugar River Valley Online, […]

New hopes have emerged that the interoperability impasse among instant messaging programs can be broken. Besides standards-setting efforts by the Internet Engineering Task Force, an informal initiative is underway to bring the players together in peace talks out of the glare of the media. IP telephony consultant Jeff Pulver is hosting a closed-door instant messaging […]

An independent consultant in Israel has released the results of one of the first exhaustive surveys of Internet security, hoping to provide a wake-up call for Internet companies. With the help of a piece of homemade scanning software, Liraz Siri probed nearly 36 million Internet hosts worldwide over a period of eight months. Siri and […]

A domain registrar in Germany has quietly kicked off some long-awaited competition in domain name pricing. CSL GmbH of Duesseldorf is offering two-year registrations in the top-level domains .com, .net, and .org, for 40.9 Euros, or about US$43.50. That’s nearly 40 percent off the industry-standard fee of $70 established by Network Solutions, Inc. — a […]

An information security consultant said Wednesday he’s discovered a serious flaw in network security and anti-virus software products — a flaw that could threaten the Internet’s e-mail infrastructure. According to Robert Rosenberger, he’s developed an e-mail-borne attack which can potentially defeat most major security products — not by slipping by undetected, but by attacking the […]

An executive at Prodigy Communications is among those calling for AT&T to give ISPs access to its cable network at competitive prices. Marc Jacobson, senior vice president of corporate development at Prodigy Communications believes the way to bring a truce in the escalating war of words over open cable access is to let Prodigy and […]

A federal court in southern California has ruled against Playboy Enterprises Inc., in a case involving the sale of online banner ads keyed to specific search terms. A U.S. District judge for the central district of California, southern division, refused to grant Playboy’s request for a preliminary injunction against Excite Inc. and Netscape Communications Corp., […]

The U.S. Department of Commerce has put Network Solutions on notice that it plans to play hardball if the domain registration company resists open competition. In a 28-page letter authored by general counsel Andrew Pincus and made public late Friday, Commerce provides a rare glimpse into the private negotiations between the government and Network Solutions, […]

An unsolicited commercial e-mailing from Network Solutions, Inc. has some Internet service providers mad as heck, but they can’t do anything about it. The electronic message, which bore the subject line “NSI e-commerce tips,” was mass mailed Wednesday to individuals listed as technical contacts in NSI’s who-is database of domain registrations. The e-mail, at least […]