For users in remote and branch offices, Web access can be somewhat of a waiting game.
3Com aims to shorten the wait by providing small businesses and remote offices with Web
caching technology without the added cost of a caching server.
3Com this week announced it will add Web caching capabilities to its OfficeConnect
family of small business and remote/branch office network products. The company will
bundle Mangosoft's Cachelink Web caching software with its OfficeConnect ISDN, 56K,
Dual 56K, and IDSL LAN Modems, as well as the OfficeConnect Remote 812 and 840 Routers,
and SuperStackII RAS 1500 remote access system.
The software allows PCs attached to 3Com devices to pool their Web browser's caching
space, providing a collective Web cache for all PCs on the network. This gives users in
a remote office faster access to frequently used Web pages, and saves bandwidth for
connections to the Internet or to a corporate WAN. The software runs transparently on
users' PCs, rather than on a separate caching server, and requires no additional hardware
or system administration.
"The beauty of the system is it's extremely scalable. As you add more seats, you increase
the amount of cache your office has," says Ross Perry, manager for 3Com's OfficeConnect product
line. "What you're really doing is getting the total use out of a system" of PCs on a network,
Perry adds. "People don't take resources out of the system the more they use it; they're making
it more robust."
The Cachelink software from Mangosoft will ship immediately with all of 3Com's
OfficeConnect family of products.
3Com: www.3com.com
