Santa Clara, California-based 3Com Corp has released two network management applications in its Transcend family, designed for the administration of Ethernet local area networks and enterprise networks. The lower-end of the two, Transcend Workgroup Manager, is a Windows-based Simple Network Management Protocol application for Ethernet hubs and adaptors, said to provide views of workgroup activity in addition to device management of hubs and adaptors. It includes hub port-to-adaptor correlation to speed troubleshooting; virtual grouping for the management of user-defined groups; auto-discovery of Simple Network Management Protocol devices; network control through scheduled access, congestion indicator and alarm thresholding; and access to management data via Telnet, Ping and Management Information Database Browser capabilities. The new Transcend Enterprise Manager is designed to manage workgroups, through the Workgroup Manager, backbone, wide-area networks and remote office sites. In addition to the features of the Workgroup Manager, it is said to provide port-level centralised configuration of the company’s NetBuilder II bridge-routers and NetBuilder Remote Office bridges and routers; graphical browsing of Token Ring network segment statistics for problem isolation; and the creation, configuration and mangement of resilient-pair hub ports for fault tolerance. Both systems are shipping now; the Workgroup Manager costs $500, while the Enterprise Manager is $3,000.
