Stories by Jim Duffy

3Com boosts LAN telephony wares

3Com has announced a plan to scale its LAN telephony platform to support larger enterprises, and unveiled a broad strategy to extend voice capabilities across its portfolio of data networking products.

Cisco Recalls Switch Modules

Cisco is recalling some 10Base-T Ethernet switching modules for its Catalyst 5000 LAN switches because the boards can short out and disable networks.

Cisco bolsters potency of QoS

Cisco this week is expected to announce a significant extension of its policy-based network initiative, one that gives users greater control in allocating network services to business applications.

Cabletron reports 19pc jump in earnings

Cabletron Systems this week reported earnings of $US12.5 million, or $0.07 per diluted share, on sales of $356.6 million for the second quarter of its fiscal year 2000, ended August 31.

Cisco Goes Shopping for Optical Gear

By plunking down US$7.4 billion on two start-ups that haven't made any money, Cisco is showing its resolve to become one of the dominant telecom companies in the 21st century.

3Com, Siemens ditch $100m LAN telephony plan

Less than a year into the project, 3Com and Siemens have dropped their $100 million joint venture to develop LAN telephony products.
In its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, 3Com stated that an "expanded strategic relationship" with Siemens this year obviated the need for the joint venture.
"During fiscal 1999, we expanded our strategic relationship with Siemens AG to include a worldwide joint selling agreement in the large enterprise and solutions provider markets," the filing stated. "The strategic alliance may consider joint development of voice-related enterprise and carrier solutions. In light of the current strategic relationship, the two companies will not proceed with a previously announced joint venture."

Cisco Bringing Convergence to Small Offices

Cisco this week is expected to unveil a multiservice router designed to let small and midsize businesses integrate voice and data traffic at a much lower cost than they could with Cisco's previous low-end offering.
The new 1750 multiprotocol router starts at about US$1,800, whereas Cisco's previous low-end offering, the 2600, was overkill in terms of price and features for many small businesses. The 2600 costs between US$2,700 and US$7,500, depending on configuration.
Cisco declined to comment on the 1750. But sources familiar with the product say it is a modular router sporting three slots for voice modules, such as PBX connections, and WAN modules, such as ISDN and T-1 links. The device also has a 10/100M bit/sec autosensing Ethernet port and an internal expansion slot for hardware-assisted data encryption.

Cisco Beefs Up Catalyst

Cisco Systems Inc. today unveiled three new modules for its Catalyst 5000 LAN switches that feature enhanced quality-of-service capabilities and greater port density.
The new products include a 24-port 10/100 RJ-45 module, a 36-port 10/100 RJ-21 module and a 24-port 100FX MT-RJ multimode fiber module. Quality-of-service (QoS) features on the new modules include Weighted Random Early Detection drop threshold management. WRED drops low priority packets to avoid congestion.

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