Hotel Online Special Report 
sentr@NET Offers inetHotel for Internet Access Service Minneapolis, MN/Pleasant Hills, CA – December 29, 1999 –sentr@NET, a vertical application service provider focused on the hospitality market today announced that it now offers management companies and franchisers a complete Internet access service for hotel guests and meeting rooms utilizing Tut Systems’ (NASDAQ: TUTS) industry-leading, integrated communication solutions for the multi-tenant market – which includes hotels, apartments, dormitories and multi-tenant commercial buildings. sentr@NET’s network, called inetHotel, is anchored by Tut’s open architecture Expresso family of products in the hotel and sentr@NET’s WAN management/services facilities that provide secure and scalable Internet and property Intranet access for guest and management companies/franchisers. Tut System’s Expresso family of products uses a property’s existing infrastructure to deliver high-speed Internet access to guest and meeting rooms. The efficient, “no new wires” solution and open architecture products deliver data at speeds up to 20 times faster than dial-up modems using its award-winning HomeRun technology that ensures high connectivity speeds without disrupting the telephone’s voice services.. And because only a single-pair of wires is utilized, Tut’s HomeRun technology eliminates the need for costly PBX upgrades, second analog lines or rewiring of the property. Tut’s products are available in scalable configurations designed to accommodate the capacity requirements of full service and limited service properties.
“A highly reliable, scalable and flexible architecture is essential to making guest and meeting room Internet access a successful and profitable amenity for hotels,” said Ian Mackay, President of sentr@NET. “Choosing the best-of-market, field-proven, and open architecture products from Tut Systems gives us a strong network foundation that we can leverage to deliver even more networking and application-sharing services to our hospitality partners.”
sentr@NET’s inetHotel is a complete system that delivers in-property networks for guest, meeting room and hotel back office staff; cost-effective and high-performance frame-relay and ATM connections from market-leading backbone providers, like AT&T and MCI/Worldcom; networking hardware and software infrastructure products from Cisco, Motorola, Intel, Microsoft, Compaq and others: and service and support from worldwide provider Equant. And the unique make-up of the inetHotel network suits it not only for Internet and VPN traffic from hotels, shared-application deployment by management companies and franchisers, and video conferencing; but also for future uses such as Internet-based video delivery, voice over IP, and many more applications that will need definable and guaranteed network performance.
“For the benefit of their customers, sentr@NET is providing solid solutions for today’s needs in the hotel market while looking ahead and preparing for both competitive and technology changes in the future,” said Sal D’Auria, President and CEO of Tut Systems. “sentr@NET’s unique and effective networking approach makes them a valuable technology partner for us and their customers.” The inetHotel network is structured around centralized operation centers that support multiple properties and management companies over private network connections. Guest and hotel data traffic are securely separated on the property and over the public network to the inetHotel operation centers. Using this unique approach to manage data traffic provides higher performance for guest and management company than the direct-to-Internet design used most frequently today. Centralization and resource sharing also affords lower costs that sentr@NET passes on to the hotels and management companies to make them more resistant to competitive market changes. The same flexibility the inetHotel network provides is evident in sentr@NET’s business plans.
sentr@NET business plans offer management companies and owners the most flexible financing options in the guest Internet-access market today. Plans range from full-service, zero-cost revenue sharing programs to full-service flat-fee programs. sentr@NET partners can choose any of four business plans to start and migrate to another plan within the initial contract period. When the level of guest acceptance turns the risk/profitability factor in favor of the management company and owners, sentr@NET partners can opt for a more profitable plan. On-going marketing support, property-specific Web site development, sentr@NET-managed Internet advertising and affiliate programs with revenue-sharing, and toll-free 24 x7 guest and hotel staff help lines are standard with all plans. About sentr@NET sentr@NET focuses on delivering high-speed Internet access for guest and meeting rooms in hotels, conference centers, extended stays and resorts as the first stage of a wider networking and application-sharing concept the company offers. sentr@NET’s expertise is in leveraging the basic guest Internet access infrastructure and the revenue it generates to build efficient but very low-cost WAN connections between management companies and their properties. From here its customers can choose to use sentr@NET’s centralized data warehousing facilities and applications to lower its application software licensing and support costs. sentr@NET’s networks are supported by strategic relationships with the leading service, software and hardware suppliers in the market, including AT&T, MCI, Tut Systems, ATCOM/CAIS Internet, Intel, Microsoft, Cisco, Motorola, and Equant.
About Tut Systems, Inc. Tut Systems (NASDAQ: TUTS) is a leading provider of integrated communication systems for multi-tenant buildings including apartments, dormitories, hotels and commercial properties. Tut’s Expresso MDU system integrated with Tut’s award-winning HomeRun? technology allows service providers and property owners to use buildings’ existing telephone wires to cost-effectively deliver always-on Internet connections at speeds 20 times faster than a regular dial-up modem. In partnership with service providers, Tut has deployed Expresso MDU for some of the country’s largest real estate investment trusts and to flagship properties of several major hotel chains. Tut also produces a line of scaleable, carrier-class digital subscriber line access multiplexers (DSLAMs) for the local loop and a line of robust, high-speed Ethernet extension products for campus environments. Tut’s HomeRun technology has been chosen by the Home Phoneline Networking Alliance (HomePNA) as the initial specification for in-home networking over phone lines.
Contact: John Rotter Vice President of Marketing sentr@NET (612) 252-2331 www.sentranet.com [email protected] Also See: Teledex and Tut Systems Partner to Provide High-Speed Internet Access via Hotel Phone Lines / Oct 1999 Tut Systems Offers High Speed Internet Access for Garden Style Hotels Without Centralized Wiring / April 1999 Ron Lenz Named CFO at sentr@NET/ Sept 1999