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Dell Computer has expanded its line of network equipment for small and medium-size businesses, rolling out a Gigabit Ethernet switch and a Fast Ethernet switch on Wednesday.

Dell began selling network equipment for small and medium-size businesses last fall after seeing those products start to become a standardized commodity suited to Dell's direct-sales model, said Kim Crawford, vice president and general manager of Dell's networking business. At that time, it introduced the PowerConnect line, consisting of two switches with management features and two without. Managed switches include support for functions such as optimizing the traffic flow in a network.

Dell also markets several server products for midsize businesses. Its most recent entry is the PowerEdge 1500SC, a dual-processor midrange server priced at $1400 and released in November. Buyers can specify that Microsoft Windows 2000 Server, Microsoft Windows NT 4.0, or Red Hat's Linux 7.2 be preloaded.

The switches unveiled Wednesday expand the options in that line to include an unmanaged all-Gigabit Ethernet switch for the core of company networks and an unmanaged high-speed workgroup switch. Both are available immediately in the United States and will be available in the future in other countries.

Workgroup Connections

The Dell PowerConnect 2508 is an eight-port Gigabit Ethernet switch, priced at $499, that can be used to link servers and workstations as well as PCs. It is designed to help small and medium-size businesses link several workgroups and servers at high speed, Crawford said.

The Dell PowerConnect 2124, also introduced Wednesday, has twenty-four 100-megabit-per-second Fast Ethernet ports and one Gigabit Ethernet uplink port. It can be used as a high-speed interconnect for workstations and printers as well as PCs, according to Dell. The PowerConnect 2124 is priced at $299.

A company with about 100 employees might use a PowerConnect 2124 in each of five workgroups to give each user Fast Ethernet access to the network, and it might use the PowerConnect 2508 to aggregate the traffic from each of those workgroups and to provide a Gigabit Ethernet connection to each of three servers, Crawford said.

Ethernet switching, which gives each client a link to the LAN at a set speed, began as a relatively expensive technology used mostly in medium-size and large enterprises. With advances in silicon and other technology, however, customers have gradually been able to afford more speed and stronger capabilities for less money.

Dell jointly designed the switches in Taoyuan, Taiwan, with Delta Networks Inc., which manufactures them.

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