3Com Corporation (Nasdaq:COMS) has expanded its small-and-medium business (SMB) product portfolio with a new standards-based Power over Ethernet (PoE)-enabled wireless access point. Available today, the 3Com OfficeConnect Wireless 108Mbps 11g PoE Access Point makes 3Com the first vendor to deliver all the necessary components enabling complete voice-data-wireless LAN convergence for small business.

"3Com is getting ahead of the curve by uniquely combining its new PoE-enabled wireless access point along with its PoE web-configurable switch and small business Internet Protocol telephony system into a solution set that is specifically tailored and priced for the SMB market," said Aaron Vance, Senior Analyst with Synergy Research Group. "Furthermore, 3Com's solution is particularly attractive and convenient for resellers who specialize in the small-and-medium business market."

3Com's comprehensive SMB solutions are distinguished by the enterprise-class features that 3Com has built into the easy-to-use products, including the recently announced 3Com Baseline Switch 2226-PWR Plus and 3Com NBX V3000 telephony system.

"We are giving 3Com's small business customers and medium-sized business customers the best of all converging worlds--wireless, telephony and data," said Neal Kaufman, Senior Director of Small Business Product Management, 3Com. "The Power over Ethernet in the Baseline Plus Switch drives power to the new PoE OfficeConnect wireless access points and 3Com advanced IP telephones. This eliminates the need for a power plug at each access point or phone. Our customers have more choices and flexibility with 3Com's secure solutions. They also get the enterprise-class features at an affordable price and without complexity."

3Com continues to expand and upgrade its SMB product portfolio in order to help drive the networking industry trends for this growing and evolving market. Today's announcement of a "Connect Anywhere" 3Com wireless solution is another step forward in 3Com's SMB strategy to offer complete solutions to small-and-medium business customers.

Having one of the broadest SMB product portfolios in the industry, 3Com also offers the OfficeConnect Wireless 11g XJACK PC Card and the IntelliJack device to support end-user connections, whether wirelessly by the innovative and patented XJACK technology in the 3Com wireless PC card or wired by the four-port, PoE-enabled "network jack," another 3Com innovation that turns one connection into four secure connections.

The 3Com OfficeConnect Wireless 108Mbps 11g PoE Access Point provides high-speed wireless networking for small-and-medium businesses, remote sites and temporary locations. Each access point supports up to 64 users. The PoE support simplifies the installation of wireless access points and connects each access point to the Baseline Switch 2226-PWR for power and data.

Furthermore, the new OfficeConnect PoE access point supports high levels of wireless security, such as 802.1X, AES and WPA. The "enterprise class' features also include 108Mbps SuperG, Wireless Distribution Systems (WDS) with WPA-PSK support over WDS links, multiple SSID support, 802.1Q VLAN support and rogue access point detection. These advanced features increase speed and security and reduce complexity for the small business customer.

The 3Com Baseline Switch 2226-PWR Plus is designed to drive down the cost of deploying IP telephony applications and small business wireless applications, accelerating the adoption of IP telephony and mobile technologies. The Power over Ethernet switch, which was announced in December 2004 and is shipping today, is an ideal Layer 2 switch for small-to-medium enterprise wiring closets that use LAN infrastructure for the deployment of network applications such as IP telephones, wireless LAN access points, network jacks, video surveillance, and remote video kiosks.

The 3Com Baseline Switch 2226-PWR Plus is the latest addition to the Baseline Plus Switch family, a unique, web-configurable, enterprise-class family of 10/100 and Gigabit switches, priced and feature-optimized for small-and-medium businesses.

Power over Ethernet technology is the cohesive technology bringing everything together; allowing data, voice and wireless convergence in SMB network environments. The 3Com Baseline Plus PoE switch helps to dramatically reduce deployment and installation costs of wireless and IP telephony systems as it eliminates the need for supplying power at the physical location of the networked device, i.e. a wireless access point or an IP telephone. The PoE-enabled switch gives managers more control over network user access as they can turn power on and off at the connected switch port, via the switch web interface, effectively enabling or disabling network access.

For many networks, audio quality of the IP telephony system depends on the priority within the data network. The 3Com Baseline Switch 2226-PWR automatically detects and prioritizes NBX IP Telephony traffic, making voice prioritization transparent to the user and ensuring that this real-time application delivers the highest audio quality possible. This differentiating, collaborative feature is unique to 3Com and unparalleled in the market.