3Com Corp, San Jose, California has added a wide area bridge and a wide area b-router to its NetBuilder family of network communications products, making NetBuilder the only internetworking system that gives users a choice of local or remote bridging and b-routing on a single piece of hardware, the company claims. The new products are the Internetwork Bridge/3000 and the Brouter/3000, and were demonstrated for the first time at the CeBIT show in Hannover. The IB/3000 and BR/3000 use RS-232 and V35 connectors to link geographically remote Ethernet networks, with data transmitted over two serial links at rates ranging from low speed 9.6Kbps to T-1 speed – the company says 2.048Mbps but that’s the standard for Europe and T-1 is a US designation – for digital lines running at 1.544Mbps. All NetBuilder products offer standards-based network management protocols, including the SNMP Simple Network Management Protocol, and CMOT Common Management Information Protocol over TCP/IP, and can be managed either from a local workstation, a 3Com Network Control Server or another device on the network using Telnet. A network manager can upgrade from a bridge-only system to a b-router simply by loading and booting a floppy. The IB/3000 and BR/3000 are $7,500 and $8,000 respectively, and will be available in May from 3Com and its resellers and distributors.
