Traditionally firewalls were the bastion of large, publicly accessible networks to keep hackers out. But in a world connected by the Internet, every machine hooked up to it becomes publicly accessible, and so it's vital that every machine is equipped to protect itself, and the network it may serve, from attack.

Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the web, has a vision for newer, smarter web. Tim Dean looks at how the future of the web might work.

Cutting edge technology is bringing powerful enterprise-grade solutions to the small and medium business sector. Read on for tips, analysis and tutorials about how you can take advantage.

Where's the #@$%? Device Manager in Windows Vista? Steve Polak exlains how to find all the system settings you know from Windows XP, in the sometimes confusing Vista interface.

The Espresso Book Machine has made its worldwide book chain debut, and can print cheap paperbacks on demand in seven to 14 minutes while you wait.

Face-recognition technology prevents kids buying cigarettes.

Back to the future.

We've put both mini-notebooks through their paces, and while Linux fans may disagree, the winner is clear.

IBM has launched the ThinkCentre S50 ultra small, a PC which it claims is the smallest in the world.

You can't help but to notice the slim-line chassis with its brushed aluminium finish this machine sports. Flipping down the front panel reveals the front-mounted audio, USB, and infrared port, which is a nice inclusion for those corporate customers using PDAs or mobile phones with IR synching.

The lifespan of a poorly protected PC connected to the internet is a mere four minutes, research released this week claims. After that, it's owned by a hacker.

These days, when I need to send someone a document, I use email. Just save it as a Word.

Davey Winder explores the moves that brought artificial intelligence out of the labs and into the black and white world of popular science.

Aarons studio is in a modern purpose-built block on the UCSD campus in La Jolla. Canvases are stacked ten- or 12-deep, others fill the racks at the back of the room. It could be any artists studio any

Version 1 of Open Virtual Machine Format expected by mid-2008.

Device could mean faster and more secure computers.

1918 Enigma The German Enigma is surely the best-known mechanical cipher machine. Invented in 1918, it was developed as a commercial and military encipherment system. Enigma

A Lexmark multi-function device, the P6250, won our last photo printer roundup, so the expectations were high for its big brother, the X7170. Unlike our Labs Winner, this machine is definitely targeted at the business market. For an extra $100 premium, the machine adds office-oriented functions such as faxing, a copy feeder and a better scanner. It's also noticeably larger than its brethren.

Beautifully engineered and constructed, the Mac Pro is also the fastest PC we’ve ever seen by some margin.

Microsoft co-president Jim Allchin makes interesting claim.