3Com's Offerings are Among World's First Wireless Products to Ship Fully Compliant With New 802.11g Industry Standard ? Enabling Faster Speeds and Greater Distance


New York City, N.Y., June 18, 2003 ? 3Com Corporation (Nasdaq: COMS) today unveiled its new family of fully complaint 802.11g wireless offerings ? the 3Com? OfficeConnect? Wireless 11g solution ? at CeBIT America. 3Com's new 802.11g wireless solution is ideally suited for the small or home office as well as emerging enterprises and wireless "hot spot" locations. Today's announcement raises the bar by offering high-speed, plug-and-play wireless devices that are among the first to ship with fully compliant 802.11g standards that increase data rates five-times faster than existing 802.11b standards and 256-bit WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) encryption for added protection against unwarranted access to data transmissions.

OfficeConnect Wireless 11g Solution

"The 3Com OfficeConnect Wireless 11g solution addresses two major issues with existing wireless product offerings: speed and security," said Robert Winch, 3Com's director, responsible for OfficeConnect solutions. "By combining the new robust encryption techniques with the industry's new high speed, long-range wireless connectivity standards, 3Com is able to offer a competitively priced solution with 54 Mbps data rate and 256-bit security encryption at a distance of over 300 feet from the access point to PC card."

Based in Portland, Ore., beta customer Current Communications, underscores the ease of installation and welcomed speed increase the OfficeConnect Wireless 11g solution brings to their multimedia business.

"Current Communications is a six-employee company that relies on the speed of the network to produce multimedia sales training and marketing materials for Nike, news stories for NBC and outdoor adventure series for our 3Peaks Productions group," said Jay Rymeski, president and executive producer, Current Communications. "Re-cabling the office to add new connectivity ports and high-speed connections was too costly for our limited budget. However, when we plugged in 3Com's new OfficeConnect Wireless 11g solution, we instantly tripled our throughput from anywhere in the office and saved the expense of hiring a professional to reconfigure the network."

Combining Two Wireless Techniques Into One New Powerful Solution 3Com's new OfficeConnect Wireless 11g solution is among the first wireless products to ship with full Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11g? standardization and new Wi-Fi Protection Access (WPA) security.

OfficeConnect Wireless 11g Solution

The new 802.11g standards simply combines the 54 Megabit Per Second (Mbps) speed of the existing IEEE 802.11a? standards with the long-range wireless connectivity of 328 feet associated with the IEEE's existing 802.11b? standards, into a uniformed method of providing faster speeds and greater distances from a wireless access point to a wireless PC card.

The new Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) overcomes security limitations found in current wireless connectivity devices by strengthening the encryption of wireless packets to 256-bit encryption ? in essence, better scrambling techniques for wireless data transmissions so the risk of unauthorized access is minimized significantly.

3Com OfficeConnect Wireless 11g Solution
3Com's new OfficeConnect Wireless 11g solution includes three individual devices.

3Com? OfficeConnect? Wireless 11g Access Point ? Aside from the 802.11g compliance and WPA security, the new access point can be configured as a client bridge or an access point and provides Clear Channel Select and easy set up of wireless profiles.

3Com? OfficeConnect? Wireless 11g Gateway ? The wireless gateway also incorporates 802.11g, WPA and Clear Channel attributes found in the access point as well as additional wired security including: stateful packet inspection firewall, hacker pattern detection, VPN pass through, NAT and URL filtering.

3Com? OfficeConnect? Wireless 11g PC Card ? The wireless PC card incorporates 802.11g compliance and WPA security with features such as Wireless Card Manager, enabling the network administrator to perform wireless profiles and site scan/browse techniques. OfficeConnect Wireless 11g Solution

"We have producers walking into our office with their laptops in hand looking for network connectivity to download their edit decision lists, title graphics and animation files. By simply adding the OfficeConnect Wireless 11g PC Card to their laptop, we are now able to immediately provide the customer with high-speed access through the fiber channel, and onto the media storage network which houses all their project elements," Rymeski added.

Pricing and Availability

The OfficeConnect Wireless 11g Access Point and Gateway are anticipated to ship in July 2003 with an expected average list price of $135.00 and expected average list price $125.00 respectively. The OfficeConnect Wireless 11g PC Card is anticipated to ship June 2003 with an expected average list price of $79.00.

About Current Communications

Located in Portland, Ore., Current Communications, Inc., has a proven history of developing and producing thought provoking, effective, and compelling media-based communications. From episodic television to online training, clients such as the San Francisco Symphony, NBC News, Anheuser-Busch and Nike have taken advantage of Current's technical expertise and creative vision. Current leverages powerful technologies and exceptional talent to quickly develop a client's concept into a final product. For more information please visit us on the web at http://www.currentcom.com.

About 3Com

3Com is a tier-one provider of innovative, practical and high-value voice and data networking products, services and solutions for enterprises of all sizes and public sector organizations. For further information, please visit http://www.3com.com.