January 9, 2009: Once again, the U.S. Department of Defense is trying to build a "Cyber War test range." Previous efforts have foundered over technical issues. A Cyber War test range would be a collection of computers and networking equipment that would accurately simulate large chunks of the Internet. This would include a full (and accurate) array of personal, commercial and military computers, but also accurate simulation of what the users are doing. A formidable task, but this time around, the Pentagon thinks it has previous obstacles covered. Time will tell, and the success of the effort probably won't known until the aftermath of a future Cyber War demonstrates that the Cyber War test range was indeed accurate enough. The "Cyber War test range" is basically a combination of widely known hardware, and some very special software. The latter element is the hard part.