Bluesocket Strengthens Market-Leading WLAN Portfolio with Branch Office and Enterprise Management Solutions.

BURLINGTON, Mass. -- WG-400 Wireless Gateway and BlueView Management System Among New Offerings

Bluesocket, Inc. (www.bluesocket.com), the leading vendor of products that secure and manage wireless networks (WLANs), today announced the Bluesocket WG-400 Wireless Gateway--an enterprise-class solution delivering remote administration and management, interoperability and security for wireless LANs operating in remote branch offices; and small to

medium workplaces. For organizations with larger, multi-site WLAN deployments using multiple Bluesocket Wireless Gateways, the company today also announced its BlueView(TM) Management System.

Enterprise WLAN Features for the Branch Office

To meet market and customer demand, the WG-400 Wireless Gateway is optimized for enterprises that require a WLAN solution for their branch and regional offices with up to 50 concurrent users. The WG-400 supports up to 8 Access Points, with 4 being directly connected to its built-in switch.

The WG-400 is a natural extension of the Bluesocket Wireless Gateway family used to secure and manage wireless LANs and their users, and includes all common features that over 900 customers worldwide have come to expect, such as universal authentication, persistent connectivity, granular policy enforcement, and an easy to use, open system that supports Access Points from any vendor.

"As wireless networks proliferate and workers increasingly prefer wireless access, employees and visitors alike require the same level of enterprise-class security and management at branch locations as they do at their head offices," said Wai Sing Lee, industry analyst for Frost & Sullivan. "Security policies must be consistently enforced across the entire network."

Bluesocket's WG-400 Wireless Gateway now gives enterprises a cost-effective WLAN solution for wireless communications in their corporate branches and small offices--employees benefit too, as they can work wirelessly using the same familiar Bluesocket login, regardless of whether they're at their main office or connecting in at a remote branch office.

Centralized Management for the Enterprise WLAN

The BlueView Management System provides centralized configuration, policy-enforcement and monitoring, capabilities to facilitate rapid provisioning and management of local and remote multi-site WLAN deployments. Network Administrators can use BlueView to auto-discover and manage all Bluesocket Wireless Gateways and provide real-time performance monitoring, diagnostics, detailed network information, and event/alarm notification. Through BlueView's advanced job scheduling capabilities, IT management can lower operational costs by automating provisioning and maintenance tasks such as configuration backups, patch applications, software upgrades and WLAN policy changes.

The BlueView Management System uses an industry leading web services (XML-RPC) communications architecture that has been incorporated into all of Bluesocket's Gateways since their inception in 2001, and on which the Secure Mobility(R) architecture is based.

"We've identified multi-site management as one of the critical issues defining the wireless-LAN industry going forward," said Craig Mathias, a Principal with the wireless and mobile advisory firm Farpoint Group (Ashland, MA). "Bluesocket is to be commended for incorporating the key features required in such products, and I'm especially pleased to see XML at the core of BlueView. XML is the future of network management, especially in cross-platform environments."

In its first iteration, BlueView will manage all its Wireless Gateways, with other management and integration enhancements to follow.

Availability and Pricing

The WG-400 will be available worldwide through authorized Bluesocket resellers beginning December 2004. Pricing begins at $2,250 USD. The BlueView Management System will be available in the first quarter of 2005 with pricing to be announced at that time.

Bluesocket Solutions Overview

Bluesocket's award-winning WLAN solutions secure and control WiFi networks and provide Wi-Fi Security, persistent connectivity via Secure Mobility(R), policy and bandwidth management through unparalleled interoperability with legacy infrastructure and WLAN standards.

For a detailed overview of the features of Bluesocket Wireless Gateways go to: http://www.bluesocket.com/solutions/features.html

About Bluesocket

Founded in 1999, Bluesocket, Inc. is a leading manufacturer of systems to secure and manage wireless local area networks (WLANs) for enterprises, institutions and public access venues in 45 countries worldwide. Thousands of Bluesocket Wireless Gateways are deployed by leading enterprises including Harvard University, Honeywell, Universal Health Services, Toyota and Parker Hannifin and others who require policy-based, open-systems solutions to secure, manage, and profit from their WLANs. (www.bluesocket.com)

Secure Mobility, BlueSecure and BlueView are trademarks or registered trademarks of Bluesocket, Inc. All other trademarks, trade names and company names referenced herein are used for identification only and are the property of their respective companies.