Router Flaws Are Contributing to Severe Internet Congestion, According to EE Times Exclusive

Severe Internet congestion and slowdowns may be a result of inherent flaws in the backbone of the Net -- network routers manufactured by Cisco Systems, the dominant router manufacturer -- according to an exclusive report published today by CMP's EE Times. The EE Times story can be found on CMP's TechWire technology news Web site at http://www.techwire.com/.

According to a federally-funded networking research report conducted by the Routing Arbiter Project uncovered by EE Times' Internet Editor Larry Lange, the router bug is a widespread problem that plagues a majority of the Internet's 3000 plus traffic routing systems. While Cisco officials have acknowledged that it has made a fix available, the newspaper reports that many of the company's customers are slow in implementing it.

"This discovery could shed new light on the hows and whys of Internet slowdowns, brownouts, and even shutdowns," said Richard Wallace, Editor-in-Chief, CMP's EE Times. "It could be likened to a real-world scenario where over three quarters of U.S. traffic lights were inadvertently -- yet incorrectly, designed, built, and implemented -- all with an inherit malfunctioning mechanism inside."

EE Times, published by CMP Media Inc., is the leading publication covering the high tech OEM industry. The well-respected weekly is the only source that delivers news of both business and technology to engineers and technical/corporate managers at electronics and computer systems manufacturers in the United States.

CMP Media Inc., now in its 25th year of uninterrupted growth, is the only provider of publishing, marketing and information services to reach the entire spectrum of the high-technology market -- the builders, sellers and users of technology. With sales of $420 million in 1996, CMP has marked its quarter century of success with an average yearly growth of 20 percent. All of CMP's publications and a series of innovative news and interactive services are available on the World Wide Web through CMP's TechWeb®, http://www.techweb.com/, the industry's first free daily technology news and interactive services super site, since 1994. CMP Media is also the creator of NetGuide Live (http://www.netguide.com/), the first comprehensive daily online guide to the Net, and First-TV (http://www.first-tv.com/), the Internet's first 24-hour TV/video network.

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SOURCE: CMP Media Inc.

CONTACT: Steve Rubel, 516-562-7434 or srubel@cmp.com, or Leslie Dunbar,
516-562-7040 or ldunbar@cmp.com, both of CMP Corporate Communications