SAN JOSE, Calif., April 2, 1996 -- NEC Technologies' Internet Business Unit (IBU) announced today that it has licensed its commercial-grade SocksPlus firewall software for client applications to NetManage Inc. of Cupertino, Calif. SocksPlus is NEC's implementation of the SOCKS client/server firewall protocol that has gained popularity among early Internet users.

Under the agreement, SocksPlus client software will be incorporated into NetManage Chameleon^TM applications for Microsoft Windows(R) 3.11 at the Windows Sockets level. The Internet Business Unit is also developing SocksPlus Winsock versions for Windows 95 and Windows NT^TM.

With the new SocksPlus firewall software, users at organizations that use Chameleon, an Internet application suite for Windows, will be able to communicate transparently from inside the organization to the Internet through NEC's new SocksPlus-based PrivateNet^TM firewall server. Chameleon for Windows 3.11 with SocksPlus support will work equally well with other servers that support Version 4.2 of SOCKS.

According to Chameleon marketing manager Fritz Mueller, "Our customers have become increasingly concerned about network security and have been asking us to support SOCKS . But until now, the SOCKS firewall protocol has been available only in non-commercial implementations.By adding SocksPlus to Chameleon, we're confident we can now meet our customers' requirements."

As part of the agreement, NetManage will become a member of the IBU's Client Application Partners (CAP) Program, which promotes the development and broad distribution of SocksPlus-supported client applications that work through the PrivateNet proxy-based server.

According to Zen Kishimoto, director of the Internet Business Unit, "It's important to give users behind PrivateNet firewalls secure, transparent use of a rich base of Internet applications. Our association with NetManage is a big step forward in fulfilling that commitment for Windows users."

About SOCKS and SocksPlus

SOCKS is widely recognized as the de facto standard for Internet proxy firewalls; SocksPlus from NEC is the first commercial implementation of that standard. NEC has been the steward of the publicly-available free version of SOCKS since 1993, managing the FTP site where SOCKS source code is available and administering the SOCKS mailing list where users of non-commercial SOCKS trade notes on solving problems concerning SOCKS security, configuration and compatibility.

SocksPlus server software is used for all outbound connections in NEC's new turnkey PrivateNet firewall server. SocksPlus contains no original SOCKS source code, but is backward-compatible with the existing installed base of version 4.2 of SOCKS . SocksPlus provides significant improvements over non-commercial SOCKS . The code has been broken into modules and thoroughly tested for added security and easy extensibility. It supports UDP applications and server-to-server encrypted communications, and the configuration files have been completely revised to make them straightforward and intuitive.

About NetManage

NetManage Inc., the fastest-growing public software company in the United States, develops, markets and supports an integrated set of applications, servers and development tools for Microsoft Windows, Windows 95 and Windows NT. NetManage's software facilitates the communication, collaboration and sharing of information between corporate workgroups using Internet technology. The company's award-winning products include Chameleon, Internet Chameleon and ECCO. NetManage also develops terminal and printer emulation software called Swift, which supports SNA and the migration from SNA to TCP/IP-based networks. NetManage is a public company, whose shares are traded on NASDAQ under the ticker symbol NETM. Its products are sold worldwide by NetManage's direct sales force and authorized channel partners. NetManage can be contacted at http://www.netmanage.com or (408) 973-7171.

About NEC Technologies' Internet Business Unit

NEC Technologies' Internet Business Unit was formed in July 1995 to address the needs of organizations that require secure and productive Internet and intranet connection and use. The unit's first technologies, products and services are security-related. The Internet Business Unit is located in San Jose, California and can be contacted at (408)433-1226. Further information can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.privatenet.nec.com.