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Technology Stocks : Ascend Communications (ASND) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: The Phoenix who wrote (53771)	9/6/1998 2:06:00 PM
From: Gary Korn	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 61433

Gary, I hadn't know about remote authentication before either. Clearly, ASND is expanding its tentacles in and around the entire telecom scene. This, among other things, causes me to continue to wonder whether ASND really is take-out bait for LU, or whether it will continue to try to grow on its own. Almost a year ago, ASND hired a person (can't recall his name) whose primary qualification was M&A. I used to think it was for negotiating a deal with a buyer of ASND, but with SRA behind us, I tend to think the purpose was consistent with his resume: Grow ASND through stratetic acquisitions. (Volpe Brown has, incidentally, cited ASND as a potential buyer of PairGain). I think ASND is an attractive company either way (whether it grows on its own or as a takeover candidate). Gary Korn

To: The Phoenix who wrote (53771)	9/7/1998 4:30:00 AM
From: bucky89	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 61433

Gary, WOW! I didn't know that ASND wasn't delivering remote authentication up until now. That actually is a huge shock for me. Anyone else? OG Gary, I don't know what you are so baffled about, or maybe you're just ignorant. Our remote access users have to log in through a RADIUS server before they can gain access to the corporate network through Ascend MAX4000's. All of the MAX's talk to the RADIUS server and its proxies, which collectively provide all authentication services. What the article is talking about is enhancements to the authentication capabilities which will allow service providers to sort out which traffic belongs to who, allowing them to resell their access ports to other providers. This is a feature that a provider like UUNet can really use, since they wholesale a portion of their network and dialup facilities to 2nd and 3rd-tier ISP's. This feature would be of no use to a corporate user--I doubt Cisco has something like this, since their penetration into ISP accounts is very limited. bucky89