Bay Networks Adds New Low-Cost High-Density 10/100 Autosensing Switch to BayStack 350 Family; Extending its Ethernet Switching Market Leadership, Bay Networks Also Announces "Switch-to-Bay" Rebate Programs.

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 10, 1997--Bay Networks, Inc. (NYSE:BAY) today announced, at its annual North American PartnerSphere event this year in Dallas, Texas, the addition of the BayStack 350F-HD 10/100 Autosense switch to the award-winning BayStack 350 family.

The new 24+2-port BayStack 350F-HD switch offers the same rich feature set as the BayStack 350T and 350F 10/100 Autosense switches, at an industry-leading list price of $269 per port.

"As with our existing BayStack 350 Autosense switches, this new product is significantly less expensive than similar products from competitors, even when considering competitive trade-in programs," said Grace Carr, Vice President of Marketing, Bay Networks. "We're extending the capabilities of our BayStack 350 switch family by adding higher density at a low-cost. This will enable us to continue to be an Ethernet Switching market leader."

The new BayStack 350F-HD 10/100 Autosense switch has 24 10/100 Mbps UTP ports and two 100BASE-FX ports. Like the BayStack 350T and 350F switches, the autosensing capabilities of the new switch allow each port to automatically select 10 Mbps or 100 Mbps in either half- or full-duplex mode. In the wiring closet, the BayStack 350 Autosense switches provide the fastest available connection per port in a mixed environment of 10 Mbps and 100 Mbps, with minimal administrative overhead. They also offer customers a cost effective solution to leverage the value of their 10 Mbps and 10/100 Mbps network interface cards.

The BayStack 350 Autosense switches were designed to make switch buying easier -- network managers can meet all of their current and future wiring closet switching requirements with just one switch, because there is a built-in upgrade path to Fast Ethernet.

BayStack 350 switch features include: 1.2 Gbps switch fabric bandwidth; 8,192 MAC address capacity; 1.6 million packets per second (Mpps) forwarding rate; low latency; and 256 KB buffers per port pair. The BayStack 350 switches also support virtual networking with 8 port-based VLANs. The switch is fully standards-compliant, including IEEE 802.3u Auto-Negotiation for the autosensing capabilities and 802.1D Spanning Tree protocol for network reliability.

All the BayStack 350 Autosense switches are supported by Bay Networks' Optivity Enterprise and Optivity Campus software applications. Customers can also configure the switches through an easy-to-use console port or Telenet interface. Increased switch-to-switch or switch-to-server bandwidth will be provided through the multi-link trunking feature, allowing traffic to be load balanced over multiple Fast Ethernet links at up to 800 Mbps full-duplex. BayStack 350 switch customers will also be able to benefit from increased network management visibility with full RMON2, enabled by port mirroring between switch ports.

"Switch-to-Bay" Rebate Programs

Bay Networks is also announcing two new incentive programs for its BayStack 350 family of autosensing switches. With Bay Networks' unique "Keep-A-Hub" program, when customers purchase a BayStack 350 switch, the company will rebate them $25 per switch port to keep their shared media hubs in place. In the second program, the "Cisco Catalyst 5x00 Competitive Trade-in," Bay Networks will pay customers $50 per port to trade-in their Cisco Catalyst 5x00 switches when they purchase an equal or greater number of BayStack 350 switch ports. Both programs apply to all BayStack 350 10/100 Autosense switches purchased between October 1, 1997 and December 31, 1997.

Pricing and Availability

The BayStack 350F-HD Autosense Switch is expected to begin shipping in November and is list priced at $6995. The BayStack 350T and 350F switches are already shipping and are priced at $3995 and $4995 respectively.

About Bay Networks

Bay Networks, Inc. (NYSE:BAY) is a leader in the worldwide networking market, providing a complete line of products that serve corporate enterprises, service providers and telecommunications carriers. The company offers frame and ATM switches, routers, shared media, remote and Internet access solutions, IP services and network management applications, all integrated by Bay Networks' Adaptive Networking strategy. With headquarters in Santa Clara, California, Bay Networks markets its products and services around the world, providing 7x24 support coverage. For additional information visit the company's World Wide Web site at http://www.baynetworks.com or call 800/8-BAYNET. -0-

This release, other than historical financial information, may consist of forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. These statements may differ materially from actual future events or results. For instance, factors which could cause results to differ from future events include the rate of adoption of new technology, competitive pricing actions and marketing programs, among others. Readers are referred to the documents filed by Bay Networks with the S.E.C., specifically the most recent reports on forms 10-K and 10-Q, which identify important risk factors which could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements. -0-

Note to Editors: Bay Networks is a registered trademark and BayStack, Optivity Enterprise and Optivity Campus are trademarks of Bay Networks, Inc. Other brand and product names are registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective holders.

CONTACT: Bay Networks, Inc.

Erin Curtis, 408/495-3619

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FitzGerald Communications

Stacy Breines, 408/562-6324

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