Editing 3Com (section)

===Founding and early days (1979–1996)===
Metcalfe subsequently co-founded 3Com in 1979.<ref name=ICH/> The other co-founders were Metcalfe's college friend Howard Charney and two others.<ref name=ICH/> Bill Krause joined as President in 1981 and became CEO in 1982 and led 3Com until 1992 when he retired. 3Com began making Ethernet adapter cards for many early 1980s computer systems, including the [[PDP-11#LSI-11|DEC LSI-11]], [[VAX-11|DEC VAX-11]], [[Sun-2]] and the [[IBM Personal Computer|IBM PC]]. In the mid-1980s, 3Com branded their Ethernet technology as EtherSeries, while introducing a range of software and [[personal computer|PC]]-based equipment to provide shared services over a [[local area network]] (LAN) using XNS protocols. These protocols were branded EtherShare (for file sharing), EtherPrint (for printing), EtherMail (for [[email]]), and Ether-[[IBM 3270|3270]] (for [[IBM]] host emulation). 3Com became a public company via an [[initial public offering]] (IPO) in 1984.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Cuff |first=Daniel F. |date=March 22, 1984 |title=Business People; Chairman Watches As 3COM Goes Public |work=The New York Times}}</ref>

The company's network software products included:
* [[3+Share]] file and printer sharing.
* 3+Mail e-mail.
* 3+Route for routing XNS over a 3+ Server serial port towards a remote 3+ (Route) LAN.
* 3+Remote/PC for routing XNS towards a Remote 3+ PC Workstation serial port.
* 3+NetConnect to support flexible XNS routing  between a number of connected 3+ Ethernets AND/OR Token Ring Networks.
* 3+3270/SNA Gateway to enable standard 3+ MS-DOS workstations to emulate standard IBM 3270 Terminals, via the 3+ LAN and the connected SNA Gateway, towards a remote IBM-compatible mainframe system
* MultiConnect (?) was a chassis-based multi-port [[10BASE2]] Ethernet repeater.
* [[3Server]], a server-grade PC for running 3+ services.
* [[3Station]], a [[Diskless node|diskless workstation]].
* 3+Open file and printer sharing (based on [[Microsoft]]'s [[LAN Manager]]).
* Etherterm terminal emulation.
* Etherprobe LAN analysis software.
* DynamicAccess software products for Ethernet [[load balancing (computing)|load balancing]], [[response time (technology)|response time]], and [[RMON]] II distributed monitoring.

[[File:3Com 3C509BC Ethernet NIC.jpg|thumb|[[3Com 3c509|3Com 3C509BC]] (Etherlink III) Ethernet [[Network interface controller|NIC]] from mid-1990s with [[10BASE2]], 15-pin [[Attachment Unit Interface|AUI]] and [[Ethernet over twisted pair|10BASE-T]] connectors]]
3Com's expansion beyond its original base of PC and thin Ethernet products began in 1987 when it merged with Bridge Communications. This provided a range of equipment based on [[Motorola]] 68000 processors and using XNS protocols compatibly with 3Com's Etherterm PC software.
* CS/1, CS/200 communication servers ("terminal servers")
* Ethernet bridges and XNS routers
* GS/1-X.25 X.25 gateway
* CS/1-SNA SNA gateway
* NCS/1 network control software running on a [[Sun Microsystems]] computer

By 1995, 3Com's status was such that they were able to enter into an agreement with the city of [[San Francisco, California|San Francisco]] to pay $900,000 per year for the [[naming rights]] to [[Candlestick Park]]. That agreement ended in 2002.