SAN JOSE, Calif., Jan. 26, 2000 - Cisco Systems, Inc. today announced the availability of the User Registration Tool (URT) version 1.2.1, a tool providing logical network access in a campus environment for controlled mobility of end users based on their user id or group association within Microsoft Active Directory Services.

"On the cusp of the launch of Windows 2000, Cisco is pleased to be among the first companies extending broad and early support for Active Directory," said Peter Alexander, Vice President of Enterprise Marketing for Cisco Systems. "Cisco is committed to Directory Enabled Networking and is developing a series of applications and tools designed for use with the directory service of choice for the growing number of customers of Windows 2000."

"Cisco is the first networking vendor to offer a full breadth of support for Active Directory," said Brian Valentine, senior vice president, Windows 2000 for Microsoft Corporation. "Cisco's policy management solutions, that span both enterprise and service provider markets, provide the most comprehensive support for our Windows 2000-based system today."

Today, URT is the first among several Cisco products to provide Active Directory support for the Microsoft Windows 2000-based user base. URT allows users to assign user names defined within their directories to network policies and privileges for Cisco customers' diverse requirements. URT will now take advantage of these associations in Active Directory for customers of Windows 2000 to facilitate campus mobility and walk-up computing.

URT is an integrated solution that utilizes features inherent to the Catalyst switch product line, including the Catalyst 6000, 6500, 5000, 4000, 2900XL/3500XL series and Catalyst 1900/2820.

This allows the intelligent configuration of mobile users to Catalyst-based switched networks by the detection of the end hosts log-in name, their location within the network, and the privileges assigned within the URT policy server. Configuration changes are automatically downloaded from the URT policy server to the switch. URT's redundant architecture ensures a high availability solution. URT will continue to evolve and provide additional features for tracking user log-on and log-out history, as well as adding support for additional client platforms.

Among the scheduled Active Directory-enabled products are Cisco Network Registrar (CNR), Cisco Networking Services for Active Directory (CNS/AD), Cisco Access Registrar (AR) and Cisco QoS Policy Manager (QPM).