People turned out in force to celebrate the networking awards last night at the Metropole hotel in Birmingham.

Comedian Omid Djalili and live music from the Soul Traders entertained some 650 guests, along with 67 finalists.

Netscreen Technologies won the Network News Platinum award, where shortlisted companies are drawn from our grouptests over the past year. Its 208 firewall won because in performance tests it was faultless and was a great example of how firewalls have changed to support internal and external networks. Its configuration was flexible, management tools powerful and could be run from anywhere and, to boot, it was very reasonably priced.

In the reader voted award, you voted Novell?s Netware 6 OS as your favourite product, with Fluke runners-up and RIM and Foundry coming joint third. Although voting for the winner was not a criteria for being eligible in the prize draw alongside the readers? award, all three names pulled from the hat had voted for Novell ? an indication of the number of votes the company received.

One of the prize winners, Gary Moorhouse, group IT manager at textile manufacturer Gaskell, said: ?I picked Novell because we?ve used Netware for quite a while and it?s a super product. It?s very stable and secure and a good all-round product.?

However for Fluke, an ever present in the awards shortlist, any disappointment in not winning the reader vote was put aside by its victory in the Network Troubleshooting/Analysis category.

The network team award went to Neos Networks for its National GigE Network Technical Team, for the work put in to build a national Ethernet network over DWDM that provides customers such as Pinewood Studios with liquid bandwidth. A jubilant Neil Fairbrother, marketing director at Neos, said: It?s a great achievement for the whole company and in particular the guys that did the deployment.?

He added: ?It?s great recognition for them,? before heading off to ?celebrate in a big way?.

Award Winners
Network Professional of the Year Harry Young, University of Ulster
Network News Platinum Award Netscreen Technologies Netscreen 208
Network News Reader Voted Award Novell Netware 6
Most Innovative European Project European Project Marks & Spencer/Cable & Wireless
Most Innovative Use of Technology Jeff Joseph Sale Moor/Black Box
Network Project Highways Agency M25 CCTV/Telindus
Infrastructure Product Expand Networks Accelerator 4800 Series
Mobile Comms Product Research in Motion Blackberry
Most Innovative Product Product Red-M Portable Office
Network Application and OS Compuware Predictor
Network Management Product NetReality WiseWan 5
Network Troubleshooting/Analysis Product Fluke Networks Optiview Workgroup Analyzer
Security Product Bluesocket WG-1000 Wireless Gateway
Storage Product Maxtor MaxAttach NAS 6000 & 4300
Voice Integration Product 3Com NBX Product Family & 3Com Contact Advantage
Web Product 3Com Superstack 3 Webcache
Channel Partner Prime Business Solutions
Network Recruitment Consultancy Best International
Network Team Neos Networks National GigE Team
Network Training Company Cablenet Training
Voice and Data Service Provider Fibernet Group
Best Product at Networks Telecom Netscreen Technologies Netscreen 5000

Reader Winners
Network News would like to thank everyone that voted in our readers? award, with Novell proving the eventual clear winner. Our congratulations go to prize winners David Watts, who won £500 of holiday vouchers and Gary Moorhouse and Matt Hudson, who win £250 of holiday vouchers each. Telindus sponsored the prizes for the award.

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