Networking

American networking equipment vendor Belden said it was hacked in a press release published earlier this week.

Belden says the security breach took place after hackers gained access to a limited number of its file servers.
The intrusion was detected after the company’s IT personnel detected unusual activity involving the compromised servers. A subsequent investigation revealed that the intruders had copied data of some current and former employees, as well as limited company information regarding some business partners. 
Belden is now notifying customers and employees whose data it believes was exposed in the incident.
“Safety is always paramount at Belden and we take threats to the privacy of personal and company information very seriously,” said Roel Vestjens, President and Chief Executive Officer. “We regret any complications or inconvenience this incident may have caused and are offering assistance to those individuals who may have been impacted.”
The company, which makes networking, audio, and video cables, networking racks & cabinets, as well as various cable adapters, said the intrusion did not have any impact on its manufacturing plants, quality control operations, or shipping, all of which are operating normally.
Belden said it’s now working with cyber-security firms and law enforcement to investigate the incident.

While many security breaches today have often turned into ransomware attacks, Belden has not made any comment about the intention of the intruders to deploy ransomware.
A Belden spokesperson was not available for comment due to the Thanksgiving four-day weekend in the US.
According to data provided by threat intelligence firm KELA, credentials for Belden accounts have been available on the cybercrime underground since April this year, although it’s unclear if they have been used to orchestrate this breach. More

Working from home has put unprecedented pressures on home Wi-Fi. The more devices you add to a consumer-grade router, the bigger the performance hits, and the more problems you get.
The solution is to rip out your consumer-grade Wi-Fi and replace it with something more robust. A lot more robust.
Such as the Meshforce M3s Mesh Wi-Fi router kit. And now you can pick up this kit for less.
Must read: Apple Silicon M1 is everything Apple promised — so what’s next?

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$128 at Amazon More

A year after NBN decided it didn’t like the idea of speed tests as a broadband measurement, the viewpoint has spilled over to the Bureau of Communications, Arts and Regional Research (BCARR).
In the case of the BCARR, it has paid PricewaterhouseCoopers to develop metrics that are more suitable to it. On the hit list was tossing out perennial chart-toppers like South Korea and Singapore.
“No country is easily comparable to another. For example, by global standards, Australia is wealthy and highly urbanised, but our population is also spread across a vast landmass,” the BCARR said.
“Our income and geography mean that Australia is more readily comparable with Canada than with city states like Singapore, or densely-populated countries such as the United Kingdom.”
With Singapore on the outer, the list of comparable countries included a country only 17 places higher in a ranking of places by geographic size, Qatar. The other nations deemed worthy of comparison included Switzerland, Norway, Ireland, the United States, Denmark, Sweden, Austria, Finland, Germany, Belgium, Canada, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Israel, France, Japan, and Italy.
Consequently, BCARR claims its analysis showed that Australia placed eighth out of 17 for the ranking of percentage of households able to access fixed broadband, but when the question changed to connections that could hit the 25Mbps-capable requirement imposed on NBN, Australia ranked first.
Once the bar is raised to 100Mbps, Australia is 10th.

After releasing its pair of so-called fact sheets, the BCARR said that it would follow up with more in the coming weeks. Two areas touched on that are currently without analysis are uptake of higher speeds plans and data usage.
Last year, in a report prepared by AlphaBeta for NBN, small countries were also tossed aside, and the report made a lot of complaints about various measures being biased against NBN, before switching to theoretical maximums.
“Australia’s ranking would rise even further if the maximum technical capacity of the broadband technology were accounted for. In this case, Australia’s ranking would rise as high as third compared to major economies,” it said.
If we are going to engage in magical thinking, consider where Australia would rank if it remained on a 93% fibre-to-the-premises network — the theoretical maximums would be sky high.
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I stream. You stream. We all stream. By March 2019, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) reported streaming video subscriptions passed cable television customers for the first time.

But how do you get to all that content? After more than 10 years of streaming, I know a thing or two about streaming devices. Here’s my pick of the best.
I also know streaming services. I recently reviewed both the best free streaming services and best subscription-based live TV streaming services. You’ll also soon be seeing my pick of the best Video-on-Demand (VoD) services. In short, I know my way around streaming.
You may be thinking, “Why bother with a streaming device? Can’t I get all the streaming services I want from a smart TV? Actually, no, no you can’t.
I wish you could, but today smart TVs are still a poor choice. That’s because, generally speaking, TV manufacturers do a poor job of supporting streaming services. For example, last year, older smart TVs from Samsung and Vizio stopped supporting Netflix. If they can do that to Netflix, the most popular of all subscription-based video streaming services, you know they’ll neglect other services as well.  
Some smart TVs also don’t support newer channels. For example, if your kids are demanding Frozen 2 on Disney+ and you have a non-supported Vizio Smartcast TV, you’ll have to explain to your five-year-old that they can’t watch Anna, Else, and Olaf after all. Good luck with that.
A related problem is that smart TVs don’t tend to support the more obscure channels. For example, I like the sport cricket, so I subscribe to Willow TV. If there’s a smart TV out there, which supports it, I haven’t found it yet. 

Eventually. true streaming devices may become obsolete. We’re not there yet. 
Besides, it’s a lot cheaper to buy a new streaming gadget than it to buy a new TV.  So, before you buy any of these, if you like a particular, non-mainstream streaming service, make sure your device supports it. Only Roku supports pretty much everything and anything. And, even then, thanks to business fights, some services may not be supported. For example, until recently, you couldn’t get HBO Max or Peacock on a Roku. 
So, with all that in mind, let’s dig into today’s best streamers.

Hard to beat Roku’s entry-level streaming gadget

If you want the best possible quality from a Roku device, you want the 2020 Roku Ultra. But, if you want the best deal for the money, you want the Roku Streaming Stick+.
For a list price of $50, you get Roku’s easy-to-use interface and access to over 5,000 streaming services. And, yes, as of late November 2020, that includes HBO Max and NBC’s Peacock. 
The Stick+ streams 4K and High Dynamic Range (HDR) video. Like all Roku devices, it includes the best streaming service search function of all streaming devices. 
The remote, which now includes a TV volume and power control, is also easy to use. Thanks to its Advanced Wireless Receiver, you can control your viewing experience from anywhere in your living room or even the largest home theater. 
As an option, you can also get the remote with earbud headphones. With this, you can watch the show you want without bugging your spouse who’s reading next to you.
Really, there’s no reason to look any further if all you want is an excellent video streamer. The Roku Streaming Stick+ is the best of the best.
$29 at Amazon $38 at Walmart $30 at Best Buy

The highest-end Roku is better with the right home theater gear

What’s that you want the Rolls-Royce of streaming devices? In that case, you’ll want Roku’s latest of its top-of-the-line streaming device: The 2020 Roku Ultra.
For a list price of $100, the Roku Ultra has everything the Stick+ and more. Like what? I’ll tell you.
In addition to 4K and HDR, the Ultra also supports Dolby Vision and three-dimensional audio Dolby Atmos acoustics on compatible TVs. With the right television, sound system, and video content you’ll get the best possible streaming experience.
Notice I said with the “right” equipment and set up. Most new high-end TVs support Dolby Vision, with the notable exception of Samsung, which supports its own HDR10+ format. Dolby Vision will give you a slightly better HDR experience than generic HDR. Dolby Atmos is a surround sound format. It goes beyond Dolby Digital’s 5.1-channels to add “height” audio channels for improved realism.  The only way you can experience this is with a home theater audio rig setup to use it. To do that, the Ultra will be the cheapest component of your home theater by an order of magnitude. 
The streaming device supports 802.11ac for an excellent high-speed Wi-Fi connection. It also comes with an Ethernet port, if you want the security of a wired network connection. Personally, I prefer the Ethernet port. 
It also includes a USB port. With it, you can connect an external hard drive or a Network-Attached Storage (NAS) so you can watch your own video library. That way you don’t need to worry about setting up a media server. Personally, I prefer setting running my own Plex server so I can watch my collection of 30s and 40s movies no matter where I am in my home. But you can’t beat just plugging in your video collection into the USB port for ease of use. 
Finally, the Ultra’s remote now has two customizable buttons to open your favorite channels. This is in addition to the default buttons for Netflix, Hulu, Sling TV, and Vudu. 
If you want the best possible streaming experience, and you have the rest of the home theater gear to go with it, get the Ultra. It’s that simple.
$69 at Amazon $70 at Best Buy $100 at Crutchfield

A full-powered TV streaming device

I’ve been a fan of the Google Chromecast since day one back in 2013. All it could do was mirror my Android smartphone and tablet’s screens and my Chrome web browser’s display to my TV. That was it. Screencasting, as it’s been come to be known, is actually pretty powerful. But, this fall, Google decided to make the Chromecast, under the name Chromecast with Google TV, a full-fledged streaming device.
This next-generation Chromecast now comes with a remote. Earlier versions required you to use your Android device to control it. This remote also supports TV power and volume controls. It also lets you change your TV inputs making it something of a simple universal remote. Although if you want a true high-powered universal remote, you’ll still want to buy a Logitech $70 Harmony 665 or $250 Harmony 950. 
Like the Roku Ultra, it supports 4K UHD streaming with HDR and Dolby Vision video support for video and no holds barred Dolby Atmos for outstanding sound. It also comes with the Google TV interface. Behind that, you’ll find the Android operating system with over 6,500 Android TV apps.
It’s best feature, however, is that while other streaming devices make you hop from service to service to find your show. (Example: Is The Queen’s Gambit on Netflix or Amazon Prime? Netflix.) On Google, all your favorite shows, across all your streaming services, are shown on one screen. It’s a killer feature.
Last, but never least, it has a list price of $49.99. With all that, you may wonder why I still prefer the Roku models. Frankly, the only reason at this point is that Roku has a long track history, while this radical new Chromecast is only a few months old. All other things being equal, by this time next year, Chromecast with Google TV may well be my first choice.
$50 at Walmart $50 at Best Buy $50 at Adorama

What do you get when you combine Alexa with a streaming box?

The Amazon Fire TV Cube (2nd Gen) comes with Alexa built-in. Now, I was an Amazon Echo user from the start, so I’m fine with that. If you’re not, keep looking. But if you’re OK with Alexa listening in, then you should check out the latest generation Fire Cube. 
This $120 list price version of the Fire TV Cube is faster than its ancestor. It also supports 4K, HDR, Dolby Vision, and Dolby Atmos. It’s also one of the few devices that supports Samsung’s HDR10+. 
It and the rest of the Amazon Fire TV devices also –finally — support YouTube and YouTube TV. For a long time, Amazon and Google were squabbling, and even though you could get Amazon Prime Video on Google devices, such as Android TVs,  you couldn’t get Google-based content on Fire TV devices.
Where the Fire TV Cube excels, as you might imagine, is with voice commands. With this box, you’ll never need to worry about where the remote is hiding this time. It’s inside your couch, by the way; it’s always hidden between the couch cushions, in my vast experience of losing remotes. 
It also, thanks to Alexa, will let you, after setting it up properly, let you switch HDMI inputs and even change cable channels. 
There’s only one real problem with the new model Fire TV Cube, and it’s one it shared with the rest of the Fire family: Amazon is not shy about putting its Prime video offerings front and center in its interface. And there’s no way to change that. As it happens, I watch a lot of shows on Prime, but even for me, it’s gotten a bit old. 
Amazon also offers a wide array of other streaming devices in its Fire family. At  $50, the Amazon Fire TV Stick an affordable, high-quality streaming gadget. 
$80 at Best Buy $120 at HSN $82 at B&H Photo-Video

Apple TV (2019)
Ted deeply into the Apple entertainment world? This is worth the money.

I haven’t been happy with the last few Apple TV generations, but Apple finally got its groove back with the 2019 edition of the Apple TV 4K. For example, it finally supports 4K streaming, HDR, and applications for most of the major streaming services. But I really hoped there’d be a 2020 Apple TV. Alas, there wasn’t.
Of course, the Apple TV 4K is heavily Apple-centric. That’s great if you have your own iTunes or Apple TV app-based media library. On the other hand, it can’t stream a full 4K HDR video from such external services as Netflix, YouTube, or Vudu. It will play them, yes, but it downscales them to 1080p HDTV.
At $179 for the 32GB version or $199 for the 64GB version of the Apple TV 4K, like all Apple products, it’s not cheap. You can save some money by simply getting the $179 version. Unlike earlier models, the Apple TV only uses its onboard storage for applications and games. It streams all its videos. So, if all you’ll ever do with it is steam videos, there’s no reason to buy the pricier model. The Apple TV 4K’s bottom line is it’s great for anyone whose life is built around Apple products or the $4.99 Apple+ streaming service. Others can spend far less to watch the same shows.

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After delaying the 16th Starlink mission on Sunday, SpaceX has now launched its Falcon 9 rocket to bring its Starlink satellite count to 955. 
Deploying its payload of 60 satellites into orbit is the seventh mission for the Falcon 9’s first-stage rocket booster, which landed successfully back on the ‘Of Course I Still Love You’ droneship in the Atlantic. The rocket launched from the Space Launch Complex 40, or SLC-40, at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Tuesday, November 24 at 9:13pm EST. 
SEE: Network security policy (TechRepublic Premium)
Per Space.com, this launch puts SpaceX within about eight more Starlink missions before it completes the first phase of its constellation of 1,440 satellites. 
These satellites orbit Earth at an altitude of 550km (340 miles). SpaceX is targeting “near global coverage” by next year. The second phase of satellites will orbit at over 1,000km (621 miles). 

SpaceX last month rolled out its ‘Better Than Nothing Beta’ to users in rural and remote parts of northern US and, as of last week, also to southern parts of Canada. 
Recent Starlink beta tests show that Starlink is delivering data speeds from 50Mbps to 150Mbps and latency from 20ms to 40ms. That blows away speeds that many residents in rural and remote areas of the US and elsewhere can access. 

However, SpaceX says as more satellites go up and more ground stations are installed, along with improvements in its networking software, it will be able to reduce latency even further. 

Networking

Kate Tice, a SpaceX senior certification engineer, said Starlink expects to achieve 16ms to 19ms latency by summer 2021. 
All the availability cells currently in the US and Canada lie within the 43 degree and 53 degree latitudes, but some areas within that band can’t get a Starlink service. 
SEE: Tesla jumps 10% on news its stock to be added to S&P 500 index on December 21st
However, as more satellites go into orbit, more cells become available. Tice said SpaceX expects to significantly expand its beta program in late January or early February 2021. 
Users who are accepted on the beta program need to buy a dish and modem/router for $499 and then pay a subscription of $99 a month. 
SpaceX engineers explained in a Reddit Ask Me Anything this week that when users first turn on a Starlink terminal, it knows nothing about where the satellites are. Instead, the dish “automatically scans the sky in a matter of milliseconds and locks into the satellite overhead, even though it’s traveling 17,500mph”. 
Starlink currently does not have data caps in the beta service, but its engineers said the company “might have to do something in the future to prevent abuse and just ensure that everyone else gets quality service”.
More on Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starlink and internet-beaming satellites More

Image: ZDNet
Cisco Systems Australia has reported its yearly results for fiscal year 2020 to July 25, revealing it fell just shy of clearing the AU$2 billion revenue mark.
In a filing to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), the local Cisco arm saw its product revenue fall by AU$58 million to AU$1.21 billion while its service revenue increased by AU$24 million to AU$435 million. Once revenue from related entities and leases were taken into account, Cisco Australia reported total revenue of AU$1.997 billion.
With a lower cost of sales, the company reported a AU$78 million jump in pre-tax profit to AU$120 million, an income tax expense of AU$39.9 million compared to the AU$58 million booked last year, and AU$79.7 million in net profit compared to a AU$16.1 million loss reported last year.
In 2019, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) caught up to the networking giant, with the company reporting that it paid AU$86.2 million in income tax and made a tax adjustment for prior periods of AU$44.7 million.
Cisco Systems Australia has an immediate parent of Cisco Systems Netherlands Holding B.V. before reaching its ultimate parent Cisco Systems Inc in the United States. In 2020, Cisco Australia paid a AU$43.4 million dividend to its owners.
Over the course of the year, Cisco Australia was charged a total of AU$1.3 billion in service fees and cost of sales expenses by its parents and related parties, with AU$308 million flowing in the opposite direction to the Australian arm. The company said it also purchased almost AU$50 million in “various goods and services” from its ultimate parent and related entities throughout the fiscal year.
Cisco Australia added that it was in the early stages of negotiating a new transfer pricing arrangement with the ATO and the United States Internal Revenue Service.

In January, Cisco Australia parted with AU$118 million to purchase Zomojo, which traded under the Exablaze label and designed and built field programmable gate array network devices.
As of July 25, Cisco Systems Australia had 1,378 employees.
Microcredentials as software updates
Speaking to ZDNet recently, Cisco ANZ general manager of education Reg Johnson said when it came to microcredentials, it is best to think of them as bite-sized software upgrades to knowledge.
“I don’t think a credential is recognising a qualification in total, it’s the sum of the parts, and if you think about cybersecurity and how fast paced the changing landscape is, you’re constantly needing to do updates,” he said.
“That’s a great way of really you’re ensuring that people have kept up to date.”
A benefit of using microcredentials from universities for in-house training by companies is the ability for employees to have them recognised when they move onto their next job, Johnson said.
In July, the federal government said it would spend AU$4.3 million to build and run a microcredential marketplace.
“The microcredential marketplace will be a platform for job-seekers to see what skills they can gain by further study to help them get a new job or to get ahead in their current job,” Minister for Education Dan Tehan said at the time.
For Johnson, the use of these credentials allows universities to shift business models, make up some missing revenue due to the pandemic limiting international students, and perhaps get students into more traditional qualifications.
“This isn’t going away, I think the demands going to continue to increase, I think the quality of the credentials is going to continue to increase,” he said.
“I do think we’re going to see more of these bite-sized learning modules, but more about building blocks to bigger qualifications … [there’s] still a role obviously for degrees and those education programs, but I think it’s a recognition of the pace of technology and the need for moving with that.”
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Dell Technologies third quarter results crushed estimates as it rode a PC demand surge amid remote work and learning.
The company reported earnings of $881 million, or $1.08 a share, in the third quarter on revenue of $23.5 billion, up 3% from a year ago. Non-GAAP earnings for the third quarter were $2.03 a share.
Wall Street was expecting Dell to report third quarter revenue of $21.85 billion with non-GAAP earnings of $1.40 a share.
Jeff Clarke, chief operating officer of Dell Technologies, said the company rode “unprecedented demand for remote work and learn solutions this quarter.” Hybrid cloud demand also fared well and the Dell Technologies also outlined plans to build out its edge computing footprint. 
Dell CTO: Home office technology will need to evolve in the new work normal
PC demand boomed in the quarter. Dell Technologies’ client solutions group reported sales of $12.3 billion. Consumer revenue was up 14% and commercial sales growth was 5%. Dell said that commercial Chromebooks had triple-digit revenue growth and Latitude and Precision notebooks had double digit sales growth. See: Dell Black Friday 2020 deals: XPS 15, G5 gaming laptop, and more | PC, dead? Shipments just hit a new high – and you can guess why
Third quarter operating income for the PC unit was $1 billion. Rival HP also reported strong fourth quarter results. 

Clarke added that digital transformation is a “must-have and accelerating.” Investments are also accelerating in edge computing, distributed work, cybersecurity and infrastructure to support 5G and data analytics.He said: 

Together, these trends are taking us to a future that is highly distributed with distributed workforce, learning and health care enabled by distributed technology infrastructure, computing, analytics and real-time outcomes at the edge. 

Dell Technologies also to more online selling for consumers and exited retail. That move hurt market share, but boosted margins. 
More:
Dell Technologies’ infrastructure group had revenue of $8 billion, down 4% from a year ago, and the company noted that customers were spending more on remote work and business continuity. Operating income was $882 million.  

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Splunk said Tuesday that it has signed a deal to acquire Flowmill, a Palo Alto-based provider of cloud network observability technology. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Flowmill’s platform lets customers ingest, analyze and act on cloud network and infrastructure data to resolve network-related issues, optimize performance and reduce costs.
With Flowmill, Splunk is aiming to extend its existing cloud monitoring capabilities and bolster its recently launched Observability Suite, which offers a combination of monitoring, investigation, and troubleshooting services for IT and DevOps teams.
“Observability technology is rapidly increasing in both sophistication and ability to help organizations revolutionize how they monitor their infrastructure and applications,” said Splunk CTO Tim Tully. “Flowmill’s innovative NPM solution provides real-time observability into network behavior and performance of distributed cloud applications, leveraging extended Berkeley Packet Filter (eBPF) technologies. We’re excited to bring Flowmill’s visionary NPM technology into our Observability Suite as Splunk continues to deliver best-in-class observability capabilities to our customers.”
Splunk’s focus on the observability space has grown considerably since its $1.5 billion purchase of cloud monitoring company SignalFX in 2019. Splunk also recently acquired Plumbr and Rigor, and says the technology it gained from those two deals will be complementary to Flowmill.
The Flowmill acquisition is expected to close during Splunk’s fiscal fourth quarter, the company said. More