News Release

Three New Dial-Up Products from Cisco Let Users Access Enterprise Networks and the Internet Via ISDN or Telephone Lines

SAN JOSE, Calif., April 10, 1995 -- Cisco Systems has
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Apr 10, 1995

SAN JOSE, Calif., April 10, 1995 -- Cisco Systems has introduced threeproducts that let small remote offices and telecommuters cost-effectivelydial into corporate networks or the Internet using public telephone linesor Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) links.

Designed for users who require only part-time network access, the productsemploy "dial-on-demand" technology, which minimizes wide-area network costsby invoking a WAN (ISDN or telephone) connection only when data must betransmitted, and automatically deactivating it when transmission iscomplete.

The three new offerings are LAN2LAN Personal Office for ISDN, a PC-basedremote node product that connects telecommuters or single-user offices overISDN; and Cisco's two lowest-cost routers ever: the Cisco 1003 ISDNRouter, a fixed-configuration router that connects one Ethernet LAN overISDN; and the Cisco 1020 Dial-on-Demand Asynchronous Router, afixed-configuration router that connects one Ethernet over phone lines.

Occasional Network Access for the Cost-Conscious

Kevin Kennedy, product management director of Cisco's remote accessproducts, said, "The latest dial-up access products from Cisco deliverenterprise access to single users and LAN-attached users at small remotesites who want occasional rather than constant links, who use only one ortwo protocols, and who are very cost-conscious. Such users may betelecommuters exchanging files with project teams, school groups orindividuals roaming the Internet for an hour at a time, or small retailstores uploading sales information at day's end.

"With Cisco's new products, single users can achieve a highly cost-effective ISDN linkup. Small LAN-based offices can be connected usingordinary phone lines or, where available, higher-speed ISDN connections."

LAN2LAN Personal Office for ISDN

LAN2LAN Personal Office for ISDN consists of an ISDN adapter card with oneISDN Basic Rate Interface (BRI) port that plugs into a PC chassis, and anODI driver that talks to the PC's TCP/IP andIPX protocols.Because ittransmits data over the single ISDN B channel at 64 kilobits per second, itis ideal for the telecommuter who wants more performance than an analogphone line and low-speed modem can provide, or for or any user whofrequently downloads large files over the Internet.

With dial-on-demand support to all Cisco ISDN routers on the network,LAN2LAN Personal Office for ISDN automatically activates the ISDN link onlywhen necessary for transmitting data.

An automatic installation feature guides the non-technical user throughsimple installation and maintenance. Support for the Point-to-PointProtocol (PPP) ensures compatibility with multi-vendor products andservices. Also supported are the security features PPP Challenge HandshakeAuthentication Protocol (CHAP) and Calling Line Identification (CLI), whichverifies acceptable calls to prevent intrusion by unauthorized personnel.

The ISDN adapter card results from a technology relationship with ITK GmbH,Dortmund, Germany.

Two Dial-on-Demand Routers Based on Cisco 1000 Platform

The Cisco 1003 ISDN Router and Cisco 1020 Asynchronous Router addmultiprotocol routing technology to the fixed-configuration Cisco 1000product family, introduced in September 1994 as the platform forCisco'sLAN Extender products. The Cisco 1003 offers one Ethernet port, one WANport, and a choice of two software sets -- IP routing or IP, IPX andAppleTalk routing. The Cisco 1020 includes one Ethernet port, two WANports, and IP only or IP and IPX software.

The Cisco 1003 and 1020 support dial-on-demand routing to reduce WANconnection costs, as well as bandwidth-on-demand, which sets up parallel,load-balanced router links between sites to increase bandwidth or gainredundancy. The user can, for example, aggregate either the 1003's twoISDN B channels to transfer large files, or the 1020's two asynchronouslinks to boost performance in remote areas with low-speed telephone lines.

The Cisco 1003's integral ISDN BRI port has two 64-Kbps B channels,delivering aggregate throughput of 128 Kbps uncompressed or 512 Kbpscompressed. A PCMCIA slot holds an optional Flash ROM card that can beused to preconfigure or upgrade system software remotely. A dedicatedconsole port is also provided.

The Cisco 1020 is the result of a recent developmentpact throughwhich Cisco integrated specifically designed hardware and software fromLivingston Enterprises into its product line. The unit includes two WANports. One asynchronous port supports PCMCIA modems up to V.34 rates (28.8Kbps); an external modem can be connected to a second asynchronous/consoleport to achieve aggregate throughput of up to 57.6 Kbps uncompressed, or230 Kbps compressed. The Cisco 1020 supports more than a dozen modemtypes, giving the user a wide choice of price and performance. The Cisco1020 can also be used with remote access client software to let users dialin over PPP and access network services as if directly connected to thenetwork.

Both routers support features such as PPP data compression and IPX spoofingto minimize WAN connection time and reduce user costs. The Cisco 1003 alsosupports snapshot routing, which ensures that the WAN link is not broughtup merely to exchange status information; priority queuing, whichprioritizes network traffic by protocol type; and custom queuing, whichallocates bandwidth to various protocols by percentage. Both routers alsosupport CHAP and PAP (Password Authentication Protocol) security features.

Availability

Availability for the new products is as follows:

--------------------------------------------------                                     Availability ==================================================LAN2LAN Personal Office for ISDN     Immediate    Cisco 1003 - IP only                 May          Cisco 1003 - IP/IPX/AppleTalk        May          Cisco 1020 - IP only                 Immediate    Cisco 1020 - IP/IPX                  Immediate    --------------------------------------------------

In conjunction with this announcement, Cisco has lowered the prices of itsCisco 1001 (V.35) and Cisco 1002 (X.21) LAN Extenders, effective immediately.

Cisco Systems,Inc. is the leading global supplier of enterprise networks,including routers, LAN and ATM switches, dial-up access servers and networkmanagement software. These products, integrated by the CiscoInternetworkOperating System(tm) (Cisco IOS(tm)) link geographically dispersedLANs,WANs and IBM networks. Cisco is headquartered in San Jose, Calif., and inthe U.S. is traded under the NASDAQ symbol CSCO.


Posted: Mon Nov 2 16:24:36 PST 1998