3Com Corporation's New ISDN Access Routers Offer Lower Cost of Entry for
Routed Internet and LAN Extension Connectivity

Priced Below $1,000, New AccessBuilder Products Make Routing Affordable for
Corporate Telecommuting and Branch Offices, Small Independent Businesses,
and Personal Internet Access

SAN JOSE, CALIF. (INTERNET WORLD/BOOTH #1414) -- Global data networking
leader 3Com Corporation (Nasdaq: COMS) today announced two new ISDN access
routers for equipping corporate telecommuters and branch offices, small
independent businesses with existing LANs, and individuals using Internet
Service Providers (ISPs) with a low cost, easy-to-install and maintain
solution for routed connectivity to the Internet and LANs. Priced below
$1,000, the new AccessBuilder Internet 400 and AccessBuilder Remote User
400 strengthen 3Com's offerings for LAN extension and Internet access
applications.

3Com's entire remote networking strategy stems from the company's Transcend
Networking framework for building and managing worldwide networks. The
three fundamental elements of Transcend Networking -- scaling performance,
managing the growth, and extending the reach -- offer high levels of
scalability, performance, and simplicity in using network resources.

At a list price of $845, the AccessBuilder Internet 400 personal access
router supports access to the Internet and IP-based corporate networks for
independent small businesses and power users requiring the highest speeds
possible for transmitting data. The AccessBuilder Remote User 400 access
router, priced at $995, enables small offices with existing Ethernet LANs
to connect to the Internet, retail franchise or vendor partner locations,
or corporate headquarters using IP and/or IPX protocols.

These two new products, together with the AccessBuilder Remote Office 500
and 600 (formerly Arpeggio Lite and Arpeggio Plus) and the AccessBuilder
7000 central site access concentrator, offer a high performance solution
set, standardly equipped with all the software functionality needed in
LAN-to-LAN applications -- compression and spoofing, protocol support,
security, and management for an unlimited number of users.

In addition, the remote site routers provide a simple menu-based utility
designed to eliminate installation and configuration difficulties, and are
furnished with eleven status LEDs to help users identify when the
AccessBuilder router is running, performance levels on the ISDN B
channels, and LAN and ISDN line status. All units in the family can be
upgraded in the field from a central location using flash memory, and
future upgrades are always free-of-charge. This is important as new
standards, such as Bandwidth Allocation Control Protocol (BACP), become
available.

"With the addition of the new AccessBuilder access routers, 3Com is again
delivering sophisticated, cost-effective products to help network managers
and ISPs support the increasing number of people linking to corporate
network resources and accessing the Internet," said Bob Jones, general
manager for 3Com. "With our breadth of remote networking expertise, 3Com
can offer standards-based point products to work within existing systems
as well as performance enhanced solutions that provide users with a single
point of value by using 3Com end to end."

Cost Controlling Features

3Com's AccessBuilder access router family features a dual protocol set,
allowing utilization of today's PPP and Multilink PPP standards and STAC
compression, as well as performance-optimized features when using 3Com at
both ends to help control the costs associated with using ISDN. Features
specific to 3Com's solutions include: FastConnect protocol for quick 1.2
second call set-up, user-definable internal time clock which allow the
ISDN line to be pre-set for use only during certain times in the day or
days of the week, IPX/SPX spoofing for ongoing line availability with
minimum line use, and Lempel Ziv for at least 4:1, and often 8:1,
compression. Supported industry or defacto standards allow for high speed
Internet access as well as interoperability with more diverse WAN
environments.

Secure, Managed Transmission Features

The entire LAN-to-LAN solution family also delivers comprehensive, highly
secure features for transmissions over public and private networks. While
complying with industry standard PAP and CHAP as well as third-party
external security servers from Security Dynamics, 3Com also offers
optimized security capabilities such as: sophisticated IP/IPX firewall
filtering capabilities enabling corporations to selectively determine the
parameters, i.e. packet type, for secure inbound/outbound network and
Internet connections, Ethernet address checking, data encryption, and
Caller Line Identification.

Pricing and Availability

The AccessBuilder Internet 400 is priced at $845. The AccessBuilder Remote
User 400 is priced at $995. Both the S/T and integrated U interface
versions of the products are priced equally, so there's no added expense
for the integrated NT-1. The S/T version will begin shipping in May,
followed by the U version in June. 3Com offers free software upgrades for
all devices in the family.

3Com's efforts to make ISDN easier to adopt include offering free ISDN line
ordering and provisioning. Simply call 1-800-NET-3COM, and select option 1
to gain instant access to 3Com's team of ISDN professionals who will order
and correctly provision ISDN lines or provide users with information
regarding the availability and cost of ISDN in the United States.

Resellers in the United States should make a point of registering in 3Com's
Remote Access Gold Seal program, a special designation within the
netWorking Partners(SM) program. Please call 1-800-NET- 3COM or a local
3Com sales representative for details.

3Com Corporation has helped more than 28 million people gain access to
critical information through high-speed networks. Designed to serve large
enterprises, service providers, small offices and homes, 3Com products
provide a scalable architecture to meet the present and future
connectivity needs of today's users. With research and development on
three continents, 3Com is one of the data networking industry's largest
and fastest growing companies. 3Com's innovative marketing, engineering,
sales and support simplify communication, optimize network reliability and
protect customer investments.
 
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