Nortel spinoff pops gig copper wares
Netgear claims first to market for small biz even though others have been shipping.
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Netgear, the maker of small office/home office products that spun off from Nortel Networks, has introduced a suite of Gigabit-over-copper gear designed to enable users to inexpensively migrate to Gigabit Ethernet.
Even though larger vendors - such as Cisco, Foundry Networks and Extreme Networks - are now shipping "gig copper" products, Netgear claims small businesses could not upgrade their networks to Gigabit speeds without installing expensive fiber optics. Netgear's four new products - targeted specifically at the SOHO market - support Category 5 copper, alleviating the need to pull fiber throughout a small business.
Nortel spun Netgear off earlier this year because SOHO networking was not core to Nortel's business. (www.nwfusion.com/news/2000/
0314Netgear.html).
As many as 24 million homes in the U.S. will have computer networking by year-end, and the home network market will grow to $1.4 billion by 2003, Netgear CEO Patrick Lo recently told Network World.
Netgear's new products include The FS518T Fast Ethernet switch with Gigabit uplinks; the FS510T Fast Ethernet/Gigabit Ethernet switch; the GS504T copper Gigabit switch; and the GA620T Gigabit adapter card.
The FS518T connects client PCs to servers or other workgroups. It has 16 10/100M bit/sec autosensing Ethernet ports for clients and two 100/1000M bit/sec autosensing ports for server and switch uplinks. The FS518T costs $1,995 and is available now.
The FS510T is a lower density version of the FS518T. It features eight 10/100M bit/sec autosensing ports and two 100/1000M bit/sec uplinks. It also supports RJ 45 connections with Category 5 cable. The FS510T lists for $1,170 and will be available later this summer.
The GS504T serves as an aggregator of up to four FS518Ts or FS510Ts. It features four 100/1000M bit/sec ports with RJ 45 connectors. The GS504T lists for $2,200 and is available now.
The GA620T Gigabit adapter card installs in servers for connection to a Gigabit Ethernet network. It is a 100/1000M bit/sec full-duplex autosensing Ethernet adapter for PCI bus-based systems, and supports drivers for Windows NT and Windows 2000 operating systems.
The GA620T has an RJ45 Category 5 cable connector. It lists for $465 and is available now.
Netgear: www.netgear.com
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