One thing about branch-in-a-box devices is they're designed to sit out in a branch for three, four, five years, preferably without somebody touching them. You'll have to put them out there for a few years and find out.

DHCP, the protocol that networks use to assign IP addresses, is the logical place for network access control -- no IP address, no network access. Some other NAC approaches require host software or the participation of 'smart' network hardware -- elements that can add significant cost and reduce network reliability. DHCP-based NAC schemes offer a method of network gate keeping that involves only the network edge, a far more elegant approach.

Instead of having lots of boxes stacked up, you have one chassis in which you put in many CPU blades. To tie together what are essentially computers, you need some kind of network backplane. That's what you get out of having an integrated Ethernet switch.

Before the Second World War, I believed in the perfectability of social man; that a correct structure of society produced goodwill; and that, therefore, you could remove all social ills by a reorganisation of society. It is possible that I believe something of the same again; but after the war, I did not because I was unable to.

Man produces evil as a bee produces honey.

My yesterdays walk with me. They keep step, they are gray faces that peer over my shoulder.