NetXRay 2.5 Adds Advanced Packet Decode Capture Capabilities.

PLEASANTON, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 29, 1997--Cinco Networks has announced version 2.5 of NetXRay Protocol Analyzer and Network Monitor software for Windows 95 and NT.

This version of Cinco's full-featured software protocol analyzer provides a number of major enhancements, including the ability to spool capture packets to files on the hard disk drive in real time; to add customized applications to their IP stacks; and to create comprehensive alarms and triggers.

Using this capture option, users can capture network information consistently and store it on the hard drive for later analysis in the event of a network problem. Users can also choose to compress capture packet files to save disk space.

The program's excellent protocol distribution capabilities allow users to customize and add application types to their protocol stacks in NetXRay's graphic view. By specifying their proprietary applications, users can gather comprehensive statistics on those applications and display the information using NetXRay's Protocol Distribution Chart.

NetXRay 2.5 also provides decode support for a variety of protocols not previously supported, including VLAN (IEEE 802.1Q); IP (Ipv6, GREv2, IP Mobil, IP-in-IP and NWIP); PPP (CBCP, IPCP, LCP, CCP, NBFCP, CHAP, LQM and IPXCP); and DEC (SCP, DAP and SMB). Packet display improvements include the ability to "anchor" any field of a protocol in the detail window so that the selected field is always displayed in the detail window when the user moves from one packet to another. In the summary window, users have the option of customizing the source and destination address field to show in hardware, network address or node name format, and to display delta time in micro-second resolution.

Version 2.5 also furnishes enhanced triggers and alarm management capabilities. Using triggers, network managers can choose to stop and start packet captures based on date/time, or on network alarms or events (such as reaching a certain percent of network utilization). The alarm capability allows for network managers to specify that abnormal network events be assigned to one of five levels of severity: Critical, Major, Minor, Warning or Information. Each alarm level can then be linked to up to four alarm notification actions (including sending a message to an alpha or numeric pager, a tone beeper or an e-mail address; or starting the Script Execution feature which launches a specified external program). Specific notification actions may also be specified for certain hours of the day or days of the week.

Cinco Networks has also added an NE2000.sys NDIS driver to NetXRay 2.5 in order to enhance error counting, capture and filtering of low-level Ethernet error packets (such as CRC, runt, fragment, oversize or jabber packets). The program's address book has been enhanced to allow for the import of a NetXRay address book from another source. The Auto Discovery feature allows NetXRay to map any MAC address to its proper IP address and domain name automatically. In addition, the program can map any MAC address to its NetBIOS name automatically and then automatically add the entry to the address book.

You can see a demo of NetXRay 2.5 at Networld+Interop, booth No. 3070.

Product pricing varies based on operating software and topologies required. For more information, contact Roger H. Cox, Vice President at Cinco, at 800/671-9272 or fax [phone], or e-mail [e-mail]. Visit the Cinco Networks Web site at http://www.cinco.com . -0-

Note to Editors: Cinco Networks, Inc. is a privately-held corporation founded in 1995. The company maintains headquarters in Pleasanton, CA, and sales offices in Atlanta, GA. Cinco develops network management tools which run on standard desktop and notebook computers under standard GUI operating systems.

CONTACT: S&S Public Relations, Inc.

Caroline Pasquesi, 847/291-1616 Ext. 277

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