3Com Verifies 15-Minute Set-up of Small Business Products.MARLBOROUGH, Mass. -- Independent Testing Shows 3Com's Combination of Enterprise-Class Features in Easy-to-Use Network Products for Small Business Customers Meets Requirement for Fast, Efficient Set-Up Small business owners and employees can get their network up and running within 15 minutes. 3Com Corporation (NASDAQ NASDAQ in full National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations U.S. market for over-the-counter securities. Established in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), NASDAQ is an automated quotation system that reports on : COMS COMS 3Com Corporation (stock symbol) COMS Certified Orientation and Mobility Specialist COMS Continuous Opacity Monitoring Systems COMS City of Manchester Stadium (UK) ) has verified through independent testing that a wide variety of products in its small business product portfolio can be made operational in this timeframe, whether the installation is done by IT staff professionals with moderate amount of computer hardware installation experience or non-IT, business-focused staff members with little hardware installation experience. Now, small business customers can set-up the most fitting, enterprise-like network to fit their business in fast, affordable and efficient ways. In independent testing, Network Testing Labs has verified 24 of 3Com's small business products, particularly 3Com(R) OfficeConnect(R) local area network (LAN (Local Area Network) A communications network that serves users within a confined geographical area. The "clients" are the user's workstations typically running Windows, although Mac and Linux clients are also used. ) infrastructure, security, Internet access See how to access the Internet. and wireless mobility solutions, to be easy enough to set up in 15 minutes or less. In each test that included two groups (one with moderate installation experience and the other with little-to-no installation experience), the independent test lab carefully measured the amount of time to set up each 3Com product, providing the supporting evidence for the verification. "By installing 3Com products, small business customers can speed up their networks for faster business application response time, reinforce networks with greater security, take advantage of cable and DSL connections, or add wireless mobility to increase productivity without making a huge time commitment or getting stifled by complexity," said Neal Kaufman, senior director of small business product management, 3Com. "We are committed to delivering enterprise-class products that give small businesses the technological advancements that they cannot get today from consumer-oriented network products in retail stores. At the same time, we ensure that small business customers get affordable and easy-to-use products, so they can focus more on their business, rather than on the network itself." Verified 3Com Small Business Networks Up and Running in 15 Minutes or Less Network Testing Labs applied stringent verification guidelines to assure fair and valid test results. Within the tests, two independent groups outside of 3Com - one group with moderate IT experience and the other with little-to-no IT experience - set up 3Com's high-speed Baseline and OfficeConnect small business unmanaged switches, firewall security products, cable/DSL OfficeConnect gateways, and array of OfficeConnect single-mode and tri-mode wireless access points and adapters. The test environment for this evaluation consisted of multiple routed Fast Ethernet An earlier name for 100Mbps Ethernet. See 100Base-T. (networking) Fast Ethernet - A version of Ethernet developed in the 1990s(?) which can carry 100 Mbps compared with standard Ethernet's 10 Mbps. It requires upgraded network cards and hubs. and Gigabit domains connected by Frame Relay A high-speed packet switching protocol used in wide area networks (WANs). Providing a granular service of up to DS3 speed (45 Mbps), it has become popular for LAN to LAN connections across remote distances, and services are offered by most major carriers. , T1 and T3 connections. A protocol analyzer See network analyzer. was used to generate network traffic to emulate a real network. A variety of operating systems Operating systems can be categorized by technology, ownership, licensing, working state, usage, and by many other characteristics. In practice, many of these groupings may overlap. and server platforms were also used in the test lab environment. The 3Com products that were verified by Network Testing Labs for 15-minute set-up included the following: Small Business Security - OfficeConnect Secure Router, OfficeConnect VPN (Virtual Private Network) A private network that is configured within a public network (a carrier's network or the Internet) in order to take advantage of the economies of scale and management facilities of large networks. Firewall and OfficeConnect ADSL See DSL. ADSL - Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line Wireless 11g Firewall Router A router that has a built-in firewall to provide protection for the network. See firewall appliance, firewall and router. Small Business Network Infrastructure - 24-port unmanaged Gigabit Switch 2824, Baseline Switch 2250, 16-port Baseline 10/100 Switch, 16-port Switch 2816 unmanaged switch, Baseline Switch 2226, 24-port Baseline 10/100 Switch, Baseline 8-port Gigabit Switch, OfficeConnect Gigabit Switch 5 and OfficeConnect Switch 8 with Gigabit Uplink Small Business Internet Access - OfficeConnect Wireless 11b Cable/DSL Gateway A device that connects multiple computers to a single cable or DSL line for Internet access. It includes a broadband router and an Ethernet switch for attaching four or more computers by wire. , OfficeConnect Cable/DSL Gateway and OfficeConnect Wireless 11g Cable/DSL Gateway Small Business Wireless - OfficeConnect Wireless 11a/b/g Access Point, OfficeConnect Wireless 11g Access Point, OfficeConnect 11Mbps Wireless Access Point, OfficeConnect Wireless 11a/b/g PC Card, OfficeConnect Wireless 11g PC Card, OfficeConnect Wireless 11g USB Adapter Refers to some type of network or communications controller that plugs into the computer via the USB port. It may refer to an Ethernet adapter, Bluetooth adapter or serial or parallel port adapter. , OfficeConnect 11Mbps Wireless LAN PC Card, OfficeConnect 11Mbps Wireless LAN USB Adapter and OfficeConnect 11 Mbps Wireless LAN CardBus PC Card. About Network Testing Labs Network Testing Labs performs independent technology research and product evaluations. Its network laboratory connects myriads of types of computers and virtually every kind of network device in an ever-changing variety of ways. Its authors are networking experts who write clearly and plainly about complex technologies and products. Over the past dozen years, Network Testing Labs has evaluated thousands of hardware and software products for Computerworld, BYTE Magazine, Government Computer News, PC Magazine, Network Computing, Network World and many other publications. About 3Com Corporation 3Com is a leading provider of innovative, practical and high-value voice and data networking products, services and solutions for enterprises of all sizes and public sector organizations. For further information, please visit www.3com.com, or the press site www.3com.com/pressbox. 3Com and OfficeConnect and the 3Com logo are registered trademarks of 3Com Corporation. All other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective holders. |
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