Asante Announces 1996 National Education Grant Recipients; Schools Awarded with up to $15,000 Worth of Networking Products

Business Wire, August 14, 1996

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 14, 1996--Asante Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:ASNT), a leading provider of Ethernet and Fast Ethernet networking products, today announced the recipients of its 1996 Education Grant Program, providing six schools with up to $15,000 worth of Asante networking equipment.

This year's grant recipients include: Poplar Bridge Elementary, Bloomington, Minn.; Green Valley Elementary, Monrovia, Md.; Waluga Junior High, Lake Oswego, Ore.; City and West High Schools, Iowa City, Iowa; East Rock Magnet School, New Haven, Conn.; and San Lorenzo Valley Elementary, Felton, Calif.

"We are absolutely thrilled to receive this grant from Asante," said Charlotte Basinger, principal of San Lorenzo Valley Elementary. "The networking equipment from Asante, primarily interface cards and hubs, will allow us to complete our network and to connect all school buildings together."

For K-12 education, both the State of California and San Lorenzo Valley Elementary will focus on the visual and performing arts. As a result of the grant from Asante, students at San Lorenzo Valley will be able to access the arts through various Internet Web sites, while learning and using the most current technology.

San Lorenzo Valley has had to rely solely on fundraisers and donations to establish their network infrastructure.

"The grant from Asante will get Poplar Bridge Elementary up and running," said Gail Swor, principal of Poplar Bridge, another 1996 grant winner. "Most schools only have one network connection per room; Poplar Bridge will have five connections per classroom, which will enable all teachers to have access to e-mail and the Internet."

This is the second year that Asante has initiated a grant program for K-12 schools. Any K-12 school throughout the country is eligible to apply for an Asante grant. Recipients are chosen by a panel of educators, whose decisions are based on the school's proposal, its vision of how the grant will help improve the school, and the school's basic need for networking products.

Grant recipients receive a combination of Asante networking solutions that best fits their needs.

"The Asante grant program is designed for schools seeking new and innovative ways to use computer networking technology in the classroom," said Russ Cook, director of education sales at Asante.

"Asante is committed to help fill the technology gap in today's schools."

Asante is regularly involved in other programs to help provide schools with networking technology. For example, the company is a regular participant of NetDay, an affiliation of Silicon Valley partners working together to help wire California schools. This year's NetDay symposium will take place Oct. 12 in California and Oct. 24 in Massachusetts.

Asante also participates in national and regional education shows such as Tel-Ed, NSBA, ICE-TREK and NECC and Internet education sponsorships such as K-12 World. In addition, Asante has established a K-12 distribution program to expand education sales and expedite fulfillment to resellers, VARs and system integrators.

Applications for the 1997 Grant Program will be available in October. Applicants can either contact Asante at 800/566-6680 for a grant application or submit an entry through the Asante Web site at www.asante.com.

About Asante Products

Asante provides an entire line of Fast Ethernet products, including: Asante Fast 100 Hubs, Asante Fast 10/100 Bridge, Asante Fast 10/100 Adapters and Asante ReadySwitch products, which are 10 BASE-T switches with either 100 BASE-TX or 100 BASE-FX uplinks.

Additional switches include Asante's 5216 and 5216xp 16-port segmentation switches with two "fat pipes."

Other Ethernet networking products include NetDoubler, a network acceleration utility; the AsanteHub 2072, a chassis-based managed hub; the NetStacker stackable hub with optional management capability; network adapter cards such as the FriendlyNet PC Card; and Asante's Plug-And-Play unmanaged 10 BASE-T hubs in eight-port, 12-port and 24-port configurations.

About Asante

Founded in 1988, Asante Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:ASNT) designs, manufactures and markets a full line of high-performance products for Ethernet and Fast Ethernet networks, including adapter cards, intelligent and non-intelligent hubs, bridge products and network management software.

Asante products are available through a worldwide network of VARs, system integrators and distributors. For additional information, contact Asante Technologies at 800/662-9686 or browse the company's World Wide Web home page at http://www.asante.com

CONTACT: Asante Technologies

Jennifer C. Doettling, 408/435-8401 ext. 282

jdoettli@asante.com

or

Walt & Company Communications

Erin Curtis, 408/496-0900

ecurtis@walt.com

Sandy Turner, 408/496-0900

sturner@walt.com