Founded in Sunnyvale, California, the company was for a time the market leader in networking products for Apple's line of Macintosh computers, providing hubs, switches, routers, and other equipment.

The co-founders, Jeff Lin and Wilson Wong, had immigrated to California from Taiwan and Hong Kong in the 1960s, both graduating with electrical engineering degrees in the early 1970s.

[1]: 31 [2] The two met in Mountain View, California, in 1983 at a Chinese-language Christian church and soon after found themselves working at the same computer networking equipment vendor in the city.

[3] Lin and Wong set out the company to offer user-friendly products but had to first find a niche within the crowded market consumer networking peripherals.

The two identified a gap in the market by honing in on Apple's line of Macintosh computers, which had lacked a robust range of Ethernet-based products that the IBM PC and compatibles were enjoying.

With Ethernet connections, Mac-based local area networks (LANs) of the day could potentially reach bit rates than could be achieved with Apple's own LocalTalk.

Rather than try to compete in the intensely crowded IBM PC compatible arena, the co-founders aimed for Asanté to be the market leader for Ethernet equipment for the Mac segment.

Shortly after its incorporation, the company found its first customer, who requested a rush delivery of an Ethernet networking product for final release before Christmas 1988.

[8]: 45 Apple posed a challenge to Asanté's success when it introduced the high-end Quadra line of Macs, which came with Ethernet cards preinstalled, in October 1991.

This significantly reduced demand for aftermarket Ethernet products among professional Mac buyers, who warmly received the Quadra line, compelling Asanté to diversify in order to keep their status as market leader.

[8]: 47 In June 1993, Asanté brought in Ralph Dormitzer, a veteran executive of the Digital Equipment Corporation, to serve as president and CEO.

To address this challenge, Asanté streamlined its manufacturing operations, lowered prices on certain products to remain competitive in the market, and began offering lifetime warranties on its hubs and adapter cards, the latter helping to reassure customers and enhance the company's reputation.

[1]: 32  The company released IntraSpection in 1996, a network management software suite that operated on an intranet-based system for Windows NT servers, as free shareware distributed from their website in October 1996.

Additionally, the program allowed managers to access graphical maps that automatically updated, providing a visual representation of network changes as they occurred.

In late 1996, Asanté expanded its international presence by establishing new sales offices in Canada, Japan, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom.

[1]: 33  Although the company finished the year strong in 1997,[18] with employment peaking at 190 workers,[19]: 106–107  Asanté's market share in Ethernet products declined rapidly between 1998 and 1999.

[10] In March 2005, rival networking equipment manufacturer TechnoConcepts of San Jose announced that they would acquire Asanté in whole for $5 million in a stock swap.