ODS Networks offers new network investigative tool unprecedented in the network management industry.

LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 5, 1997--

Award-winning ProtoCop acts as surveillance camera on the

multi-vendor network; One of first to work in all five ISO network

management categories

ODS Networks, Inc., (Nasdaq-NMS:ODSI), a developer and manufacturer of reliable and interoperable networking solutions, announced its new network investigative tool, ProtoCop, which provides a unique proactive model for analyzing, filtering and viewing network management data through trend analysis.

Winner of LAN Magazines Networld+InterOp Product Awards for the Network Management category in Singapore last month, ProtoCop has drawn rave reviews from industry experts and customers even before the official product announcement. ProtoCop will be demonstrated during the Networld+InterOp Show at Booth # 2243 this week.

Designed for todays switched network environments, ProtoCop is unique among all network and system management products. Offering one of the industry's first simultaneous multi-vendor, multi-agent and multi-standards summary screens, ProtoCop gathers all the information provided by traditional network management tools for thousands of SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) and RMON (Remote Monitoring) devices on the network. ProtoCop analyzes, correlates, and inserts the data into a relational database. This fully accessible SQL database informs the network manager of areas and issues that require attention in all five of the ISO network management categories: Security, Configuration, Accounting, Fault and Performance.

ProtoCop provides an information/category-centric versus a device-centric approach to network management, said T. Joe Head, Senior Vice President of ODS Networks. The network manager can manage and view the entire system or network, not just the simple narrow views of a single box at a time that are offered by other network management products. Current products on the market do not begin to address how to make management more than a post-mortum tool. ProtoCop also allows network managers to identify network bottlenecks; determine the cost of an over-utilized backbone; summarize essential upgrades and calculate return on investment for each; identify where infrastructure investments have the most impact; identify when critical servers and hosts are out of CPU capacity; charge-back network expenses to users based on server, subnet, application or even by web connection; isolate failed devices by location, system type or vendor; manage service agreement uptime guarantees against actual system performance; and automate system inventory and documentation. In essence, it automates the tasks an engineer or manager would attempt to do by correlating the data from hundreds or thousands of protocol analyzers and displaying the information on a single summary screen.

In addition to comprehensive network management, ProtoCop helps in reducing the costs of cyber-crime for organizations. According to the FBI, losses exceeding $10 billion occur every year due to hackers, sabotage, corporate espionage, corporate terrorism and other computer crimes. ProtoCop tracks security break-ins; finds security breaches in and around an organizations firewalls; identifies hackers in the system and traces Internet and foreign addresses.

"Firewalls, encryption and authentication technologies protect a networks front door," indicated Joe Head. "Professional thieves rarely use the front door to break in. ProtoCop provides security inside an organizations network -- like surveillance cameras and motion detectors in a building."

ProtoCop was designed to leverage the capabilities of ODS InfiniteSwitch.

The InfiniteSwitchs ISNC (network controller card) can listen promiscuously on both data busses, filter for any item and feed the information back to ProtoCop which will use the data to identify network leaks and measure performance. The InfiniteSwitch supports SNMP, RMON, RMON2 and ECAM (Enterprise Communications Analysis Module) and eliminates the need for expensive external network probes.

ODS Networks, Inc., (Nasdaq-NMS:ODSI), develops, manufactures and markets a full range of local area networking products for large and mid-range organizations. ODS modular chassis integrates multiple combinations of switched and shared Ethernet, FDDI, ATM and Token Ring while maintaining fault tolerance, interoperability, and manageability. Previously named Optical Data Systems, Inc. ("ODS"), the company recently changed its name to reflect its current and future product emphasis on solutions for all networks, not just those based on fiber. ODS can be reached at 888/ODS-7770; 972/234-6400; or on the Internet at http:\\www.ods.com . -0-

Note to Editors: ODS is a registered trademark of ODS Networks, Inc. ODS Networks, ProtoCop and InfiniteSwitch are trademarks of ODS Networks, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective companies.

CONTACT: PR Tek, Inc.

Cynthia Stine, 972/276-5724

[e-mail]

or

ODS Networks, Inc.

Terri Griffin, 972/664-8040

[e-mail] REPEATS: New York 212-752-9600 or 800-221-2462; Boston 617-236-4266 or