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ZyXEL Announced Worldwide Shipping of Its Prestige 642 ADSL Bridges and Routers

New Prestige 642 Series Provides Broad Interoperability, Plug-and Play Convenience, and Best Price Performance for SOHO and Home Users

Hsinchu, Taiwan, August 7, 2000 - ZyXEL Communications Co. (TAI:2391.TW), an innovator and a leading provider of integrated DSL solutions, today announced worldwide availability of its new additions to the Prestige family of ADSL solutions. The new Prestige 642R ADSL router and Prestige 642M ADSL bridge, both standards-based and multi-vendor interoperable certified, provide cost-effective and easy-to-use ADSL solutions for home and office users. ZyXEL's Prestige 642 series was selected earlier this year by Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan's largest telecom system operator, as the preferred CPE for their 166,500 line ADSL service.

First-in-the-world PPPoE Implementation
ZyXEL's Prestige 600 family represents the industry's first ADSL series to implement PPPoE (Patent Pending in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, USPTO as well as in Taiwan Intellectual Property Office, MOEA). PPPoE preserves the existing dialup networking infrastructure to facilitate ADSL usage and deployment for users and service providers, making the Internet services charged by usage time similar to the dialup scenario.

PPPoE implementation on the Prestige 642 series also saves service provider's extra efforts from installing the PPPoE software in different platform computers. Moreover, users can still enjoy the benefits of PPPoE regardless of the changes on their computer platform or OS version.

Multiple-flavor ADSL Internet Access
The Prestige 642 series supports auto-sensing between Full-rate and G.Lite standards according to Central Office switch or DSLAM. Users can enjoy ultra-fast transmission speeds of up to 8Mbps or 1.5Mbps respectively, as well as ease of upgradability from a G.Lite service to a Full-Rate service or vice versa.

The Prestige 642R ADSL router includes full-featured routing options, including IP/IPX routing, IP Alias, DHCP server and client support, IP Policy Routing, and IGMP for IP multicast. Its NAT (Network Address Translation) also enables multiple LAN users subscribing a single IP accessing to a whole new range of networked services - including group videoconferencing, on-line streaming multimedia and multi-user interactive gaming - over existing single-pair copper wiring.

Ease of installation and Management
Designed for a quick, intuitive and Plug-n-Play installation, the Prestige 642's factory pre-configured settings benefit both service providers and their customers by eliminating the time and technical expertise required. Windows-based GUI (Prestige Network Commander, PNC) makes the configuration easy for the users while saving time and support effort for service providers. Combined with the built-in Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) and FTP, the GUI also enables advanced users and systems administrators to easily download firmware updates and configuration backup or restore.

Complete Protocol Encapsulation Support
The new Prestige 642 series also supports complete protocol encapsulation, including Transparent Bridging, Multiple Protocol over ATM (RFC 1483) and Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) over ATM AAL5 (RFC 2364). These permit compatibility with the majority of remote access servers and service offering worldwide.

Multi-Vendor Interoperablity
ZyXEL Prestige 642 series is compatible with the major ADSL DSLAM providers, including Alcatel (NYSE:ALA), Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERICY), Fujitsu Network Communications, Lucent (NYSE: LU), NEC (NASDAQ: NIPNY), Newbridge, NLC, Nokia (NYSE: NOK), Nortel Networks (NYSE/TSE: NT), Orkit, PairGain (NASDAQ:. PAIR), Samsung, and Siemens. Broad compatibility makes configuration as simple as possible for both service providers and users.

Security
In response to increasing emphasis on tight security, the Prestige 642 features a password-protected System Management Terminal (SMT), Password Authentication Protocol (PAP), as well as Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol (CHAP- where the user's ID and password will be dynamically encrypted before being transmitted to the server for verification). In addition, packet filtering provides controlled access to and from a network, discarding undesired network traffic.

About ZyXEL Prestige 600 ADSL Solution
ZyXEL's comprehensive line of Prestige 600 ADSL CPE series include the Prestige 642M multi-mode bridge, the Prestige 642R multi-mode router, the Prestige 642R-I ADSL over ISDN router, and 642M-I ADSL over ISDN bridge. This broad line provides a complete ADSL solutions for worldwide telecoms, ISPs, and system integrators.

Availability and Warranty
The Prestige 642M and 642R are available now and can be ordered via ZyXEL's global sales network, including direct from the company and through partnered service providers and distributors. The Prestige 642R-I and 642M-I are scheduled to be shipped in the end of August. ZyXEL offers a warranty period of up to 2 years covering materials and workmanship. Additional information about this product can be found at ZyXEL's company Web site at: http://www.zyxel.com/html/product/xdsl/p642.html

About ZyXEL Communications
ZyXEL Communications Co. (TAI:2391.TW), located in Hsinchu, Taiwan, is a leading supplier of complete networking access solutions for Internet / Intranet/VPN/Extranet applications. Products developed by ZyXEL over the years are not only industry leaders, but consistently win acclaim and are selected by worldwide telecommunications companies, ISPs, and other major businesses. ZyXEL now serves France Telecom (NYSE:FTE), EarthLink (NASDAQ: ELNK), Bell Atlantic (NYSE: BEL), Verio (Nasdaq: VRIO), Telia, Telecom Italia (NYSE:TI), Czech Telecom, Chunghwa Telecom, China Telecom, Korea Telecom, and Cuba Telecom.