Happy Holidays From Interlink Communication Systems!

Because the friendship of those we serve is the foundation of our success, it’s a pleasure at this special time of year to say thank you for your business, and to wish you a wonderful holiday season and a New Year filled with happiness.

Since we started this business in 1990, we have always strived to help our VAR and System Integrator customers succeed. We hope that our team has helped you achieve all of your goals and objectives this past year, and we wish you and your families a very prosperous 2004!

INGATE® EARNS CERTIFICATION OF SIP PROXY AND REGISTRAR SERVERS FROM THE TOLLY GROUP

Ingate® Systems (www.ingate.com), the leading supplier of SIP-capable enterprise firewalls and SIP appliances, earned “Tolly Verified: Product Certifications” for its SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) Proxy Server and SIP Registrar Server from The Tolly Group, a prestigious IT testing organization.

The certifications were conferred after rigorous testing of Ingate’s Firewall™ 1400 and Ingate SIParator™ 40, a device that connects to an existing network firewall to enable seamless traversal of real-time SIP-based communications.

Ingate’s SIP Proxy Server was verified to meet the “Proxy” functionality and interoperability standard as benchmarked by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), which provides specifications for all SIP products and software. The Tolly Group verification certifies the Ingate SIP Proxy to function as an intermediary between a SIP client and a SIP server that are unable to communicate directly.

Ingate SIParators are the only products available today that incorporate a full SIP proxy that understands SIP signaling, controls the existing unaware SIP firewall and opens the media ports in the firewall only when they are needed, closing them as soon as the session is finished. This allows SIP traffic to get through, while stopping unwanted traffic at the firewall. It also enables Ingate to support encryption of SIP signaling and the content of Instant Messages, a function only possible with a proxy-based security appliance.

Ingate’s SIP Registrar, which records the location of every SIP device on a private network, was verified to provide the “Registrar” functionality also benchmarked by the IETF. This means that Ingate Firewalls and Ingate SIParators, all of which utilize the SIP Registrar, can receive and correctly process “SIP Register” requests. These requests direct incoming and outgoing traffic to the correct device, while still hiding the private IP address from the outside – an important security feature to prevent unwanted disclosure of the internal IP addressing scheme of an enterprise network.

“SIP traffic must be controlled through a full SIP Proxy and SIP Registrar in order to ensure smooth communication flow and NAT traversal,” said Olle Westerberg, Chief Executive Officer of Ingate Systems. “Ingate Firewalls and Ingate SIParators enable businesses of any size to leverage SIP-based communications with confidence.”

With more than a decade of testing experience of leading-edge network technologies, The Tolly Group employs time-proven test methodologies and fair testing principles to benchmark products and services with the highest degree of accuracy.

iMarc’s the Spot…Where it all Comes Together!

This month, featuring the Paradyne iMarc™ 9126 Branch Office IP Router... Looking for some sanity this holiday season…here’s an intelligent solution for shared packet networks!

The last in our featured iMarc’s the Spot Where it all Comes Together series, in this issue, we focus on the Paradyne iMarc 9126 Branch Office IP Router. It boasts an on-board modem for management + a DSX port for drop and insert capability.

Paradyne iMarc functionality and design drives down network complexity and cost to ensure application flexibility and investment protection. And, the design is the key...literally. The iMarc 9126’s robust, standard feature set is remotely upgradeable using a software key to full SLM functionality...all in a single box. New, with Paradyne’s most recent release, the iMarc operating system offers unprecedented SLM capabilities with Class of Service support, dynamic routing (RIP 1 and RIP 2), plus, you now have available options for Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR) and Application Monitoring.

Sell into your enterprise opportunities now, and retain the ability to manage their growth needs in the future. Your customer’s will love the investment protection; Key it up, throttle on down. The Paradyne iMarc 9126 is perfect for the branch office or small-medium enterprise, providing the diagnostics, performance analysis, reporting and service assurance tools required.

iMarc + Paradyne OpenLane... to Intelligence.

The iMarc solution is managed by the Paradyne OpenLane Service Level Management system – a powerful, Web-based element and network management, analysis and reporting tool.

Paradyne OpenLane supports iMarc’s robust diagnostic tool set as well as a wide array of historical and real-time reports; it can also be utilized for Service Level Agreement (SLA) verification.

iMarc 9126... you thought the keys to the executive washroom were cool!

Tired of trying to find the Racal DAP on the gray market?

An ideal replacement for the discontinued Racal DAP DDS products, the Verilink 41RMR is an SNMP managed DDS CSU/DSU with 2 serial ports that may be mounted in a standalone configuration or side-by-side in a relay rack. The Verilink Prism 41RMR is perfect for use in legacy Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) applications requiring point-to-multipoint communications. If your SCADA network utilizes the venerable Racal product, the Verilink 41RMR is the product of choice to continue that legacy. At an MSRP of $1,245 for a brand new product with a 5 year warranty, you can’t go wrong!

For more information on the new Verilink Prism 41RMR, visit www.interlinkweb.com or contact your Interlink Account Manager at 800-638-8481.

Verilink's November 2003 Price List is now available on the secure partner website at www.verilink.com

Visual UpTime Select

When your customers are responsible for keeping mission-critical applications flowing across the IT infrastructure, they never know where trouble will strike next. Rogue applications, virus and worm attacks, chronic and intermittent transport problems, and bandwidth hogs…any of these challenges can surface at any time, sometimes in combination.

It's a demanding, dynamic environment to manage. The solution -- Visual UpTime® Select™ from Visual Networks, the leader in performance management.

Since 1995, Visual Networks has provided award-winning network performance management solutions that isolate faults rapidly, help eliminate downtime, keep key applications running and reduce operational costs.

With Visual UpTime Select, Visual Networks delivers a performance management system for frame relay, ATM and private IP that's powerful and easy to scale -- flexible enough to meet your customer’s changing needs. Visual UpTime Select can help optimize infrastructure as your customers roll out new applications, change service providers, upgrade circuits, or introduce new converged technologies such as voice or video over IP.

Visual UpTime Select meets the challenge of application delivery - in a really flexible way.

See the way to better performance
Visual UpTime Select is a standards-based performance management system that grows with the enterprise as requirements change -- while providing rapid payback. Your customers will gain in-depth, real-time and historical visibility into the performance and availability of critical applications so they can:
• Increase application availability -- keeping business flowing across the infrastructure
• Reduce operational support costs -- by eliminating the need to dispatch technicians to remote sites for troubleshooting
• Control potential problems -- heading off rogue applications, stopping viruses and uncovering bandwidth hogs
• Optimize bandwidth --- to maintain application performance without exceeding budget limits
• Leverage existing investments -- by integrating Visual UpTime Select with management platforms from leading vendors


Build precisely the system your customer needs

Visual UpTime Select keeps customers on top of application problems that surface from day to day -- without locking them into an expensive or inflexible management platform that requires extensive professional services for configuration or implementation. Visual Networks highly flexible architecture enables them to license the functionality they need, as they need it, rather than buy everything at once. The Select architecture is divided into a variety of hardware and software components:

Visual Networks Analysis Service Elements (ASEs)/DSUs -- specialized hardware elements that typically include CSU/DSU functionality installed at each location. Visual Networks ASE/DSUs enable highly scalable data collection with local storage to eliminate the need for frequent polling, thereby significantly reducing management traffic overhead. They're available for a wide range of interfaces and access speeds, including 56 kbps, T1/FT1, DS3 and OC3.

Visual Uptime Select Service Summary Software -- shipped with every Visual Networks ASE/DSU. Visual UpTime Select, Service Summary software provides a Web-based overview of circuit status and an early warning of degradations or failure conditions, by displaying status and threshold events from each location. Service Summary gives an immediate view of problems, status and threshold events in a simple, intuitive display. From here your customers can navigate to investigate problems, generate reports, track the problem in real time or go back in time to see what led up to the problem. When adding Visual UpTime Select software modules, they can drill down from Service Summary into the possible cause of problems and investigate the precise conditions that immediately precede or follow an alarm.

Visual UpTime Select Server -- that collects and archives data from the ASE/DSUs and provides a series of real-time and historical views - depending on which software modules are installed. The Visual UpTime Select server is easy to deploy - customers can either install the software on their own server or choose a pre-configured server, shipped with the correct operating system, database software and Visual UpTime Select applications - all preloaded and ready to collect data. A range of servers is available to fit the size of the operation - consult your Visual Network systems engineering representative for details on which server is needed.

A full range of software modules -- Choose whatever capabilities are needed

With Visual UpTime Select, customers can select the capabilities they need when they need them. Each module within the Select architecture is tightly integrated with the others, providing a seamless suite of tools for managing the delivery of mission-critical applications.

Choose from a range of Visual UpTime Select modules:

• Visual Select Real-Time™ -- for live, real-time troubleshooting of application flows and network performance.
• Visual Select Back-in-Time™ -- for detailed, dynamic historical visibility and the ability to scroll through time while navigating rapidly between layers of the protocol stack. View application utilization, errors, and identify bandwidth hogs and bottlenecks. Validate SLAs and ensure adequate bandwidth is provided for mission-critical applications.
• Visual Select Traffic Capture™ -- for seven-layer visibility into frame and ATM-based networks and advanced protocol analysis with an in-depth breakdown of every packet header. Provides detailed protocol decoding and IP conversation pairs analysis.
• Visual Select Class-of -Service™ -- for in-depth visibility on IP traffic classification to ensure the IP infrastructure delivers the right applications with the right priority.

Perfect for network upgrades

If your customers are planning network upgrades for the New Year include the ADTRAN NetVanta 3305 in your solution. The NetVanta™ 3305 in the ADTRAN NetVanta 3000 series of high-quality, low-cost access routers from ADTRAN offers dual network interface slots (up to two T1s) and dual Ethernet ports. Priced at up to 50% less than similar routers, this is the perfect fit for those customers with tight IT budgets who need to expand or upgrade their network. Interoperable with other standards-based routers, the ADTRAN NetVanta 3305 fits seamlessly into existing networks, and is backed by unlimited telephone support and a 5-year warranty. With no RAM concerns to worry about, easy configuration options, and no costly certification required, it is a win-win offer for you and your customer. You can add on ADTRAN Custom Extended Services (ADTRAN ACES) to the sale and add margin for you and peace of mind for your customer. Your customer can’t beat the value the NetVanta 3305 offers. We dare you to compare! Call Interlink to speak to an ADTRAN Certified Solutions Professional to learn more about this and any other ADTRAN product.

NetVanta 3305 features:

• Stateful inspection firewall
• Built-in DSU/CSU
• Two slots for Network Interface Modules (NIMs)
• Dual Auto-sensing 10/100BaseT interface for LAN segmentation
• Familiar Command Line Interface (CLI)
• Network Address Translation (NAT)
• Optional DSX-1 interface to supply TDM voice transport
• Optional dial backup plug-on modules
• Optional VPN
• QoS