U.S. ROBOTICS: UNIQUELY QUALIFIED TO SERVE THE LAN ACCESS MARKET

The proliferation of LANs, laptop PCs and home computers have produced a
scenario where providing LAN access (the ability of LAN users to dial in
to and out of the LAN) is often as critical to business productivity as
keeping the headquarters' office network functioning. But while the LAN
market itself is maturing, the market for products that allow LAN access
asynchronously over dial-up phone lines is burgeoning.

Fueled by an installed base of laptops expected to jump to 22.5 million
units in 1995 up from 8.8 million units in 1990 and the trend toward
telecommuting, the asynchronous LAN access systems market is ready to
explode. International Data Corp., predicts that by 1995, 3.7 million PC
LANs will support 59 million PCs, up from 1.3 million PC LANs supporting
16 million PCs in 1990. As a leader in high-speed data communications,
U.S. Robotics is well-positioned to serve the mushrooming demand for
dial-up LAN access products with its growing line of Shared Access
products and systems.

LAN Access, Not LANs 

Jonathan Zakin, U.S. Robotics executive vice president sales and marketing,
said U.S. Robotics made a conscious decision to play to its strengths,
before expanding its family of communications systems.

"We're not in the LAN market per se. But as far as accessing a LAN with a
modem over the public switched telephone network, that's our game. If you
look at the classic definition of a LAN, that is a network of locally
attached devices generally contained within a building. Once you extend
the network beyond those locally attached devices, you are into wide-area
networking, and USR has always been a wide-area networking leader."

Zakin said that USR's evaluation of LAN access products found that
available systems were fairly equivalent--what separated them was the
quality of the modem inside.

"The overall performance of those units always came down to what modem was
used," said Zakin. "While the companies that produced these products had
the same experience with LANs, when it came to the modem, they'd buy them
from another vendor, meaning they didn't have control of what we found was
the most critical part of a LAN access system."

All Shared Access LAN access products have a U.S. Robotics V.32bis modem as
their core technology. Based on the company's industry-leading Courier
modem, voted the #1 high-speed modem by PC/Computing, Shared Access
guarantees every user quality and reliability.

"We are playing to our strengths," said Zakin. "And our strengths are in
wide area network connectivity, modem technology and access management
systems."

Shared Access LAN Access Products: Versatility and Performance

Shared Access products allow off-site PCs to dial in to the LAN. They also
enable any PC attached to a LAN access to the V.32bis modem for dialing
out. Additionally, by using Shared Access products, system administrators
can bridge two LANs together using the dial-up phone service. All Shared
Access LAN/WAN products allow communications at a lower cost by combining
the transmission capabilities of a USR V.32bis modem with the versatility
of U.S. Robotics' field upgrade program. U.S. Robotics' unique modular
modem architecture allows for an easy daughter-board swap. For $299,
customers can upgrade Shared Access products when the proposed CCITT 28.8
Kbps standard (V.Fast) is adopted. This new standard will enable
throughput of up to 115 Kbps.

U.S. Robotics' initial entry into the LAN access market is the Modem
Sharing Kit, a hardware/software system aimed at users who need simple
modem access. The Modem Sharing Kit is a low-cost solution that can be
installed on any LAN-based PC (dedicated or non-dedicated) to allow remote
users to dial in and take control of any PC on the LAN.

The Modem Sharing Kit also allows all the users on the LAN to share the
high-speed V.32bis modem for accessing remote data services on bulletin
boards, minicomputers, and mainframes. This saves the expense of multiple
phone lines, multiple high-speed modems and multiple copies of
communications software. The result is reduced overall LAN communications
cost and easier LAN support.

Before the Modem Sharing Kit, LAN managers had to invent their own LAN
communication solutions: modems bundled with remote communications
software, a PC and gateway software -- usually from different vendors.
This was expensive, time consuming, and a support nightmare. Like the
other Shared Access systems, the Modem Sharing Kit reduces the time and
cost of network administration, since service and support is provided by
one vendor.

Two Kinds of LAN Access: Single-node Routing and Remote Control

USR's two new Shared Access LAN access products, the LAN modem for Ethernet
and the Communications Server 386, are stand-alone systems that let remote
users dial in and gain transparent access to a LAN through a new method --
single-node routing. The other, more common method is remote control.

Single-node routing extends the LAN through the phone line so that the
remote user looks like a locally attached node on the LAN. This remote
user is called a virtual node. "Under single-node routing, remote
operation is completely transparent," said Gordon Reichard, product
manager, systems products. "Everything is exactly like it would be if you
were connected directly to the LAN. You do DOS commands, DIR commands and
Windows procedures just as if you were on a PC attached to the LAN in the
office."

Under remote control, the PC dialing in acts as a remote keyboard and
monitor for the LAN-based PC being accessed. Remote control is the
preferred method when a large number of applications needs to be supported
or if the application needed by the user is loaded on the LAN from the
file server.

If remote users are very inexperienced with computers, single-node routing
will be easier for them to master, or if the application is loaded on the
remote PC's hard drive, single-node routing is better because only data
files must be transferred to the remote PC, not the entire application.
Both U.S. Robotics' LAN modem for Ethernet and the Communications Server
386 support remote control and single-node routing, allowing the user to
make the choice.

Shared Access Offers High-performance, Low-cost, Single-solution Products

U.S. Robotics' LAN modem for Ethernet is a low-cost, high-performance
2-port network modem. First, it gives users two kinds of access into a
LAN; single-node routing and remote control. It also allows LAN-based
users dial-out access through a shared modem. Finally, the product can act
as a LAN-to-LAN router using dial-up lines. LAN modem for Ethernet with
its SharedAccess V.32bis (14,400 bps) modem included, lists for $1695.

The Communications Server 386 combines the functionality of the LAN modem
for Ethernet with a dedicated 386 SX PC with up to 4 MB of RAM. Using a
dedicated single-port server ensures higher reliability and performance on
busy networks. It is ideal for running applications from a remote site
when the remote user does not have the application on their PC. The
Communication Server 386 lists for $1995.

The Communications Server 386 and LAN modem for Ethernet are integrated one
vendor solutions. Competitive systems combine software with a dedicated PC
and a modem from different vendors. Both new Shared Access products'
modems and software have all been designed by USR to deliver optimum
performance. For larger applications, the Communications Server 386 is
upgradable to a 486 CPU.

Zakin promises more SharedAccess systems in the coming months, as USR
continues to expand its access strategy. "Expanding our position in the
LAN/WAN market is consistent with our strategy of integrating our modem
technology into communication systems for added value. The LAN/WAN market
is a key target."

"We can increase reliability, performance and value to our customers, since
a USR modem is at the heart of every SharedAccess product," he said.
"That's a major qualitative difference."

U.S. Robotics, 8100 N. McCormick Blvd, Skokie, IL 60076
708-982-5010

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