StarNine Announces WebSTAR (formerly MacHTTP), the leading commercial World
Wide Web Server for Macintosh

Forms Strategic Alliance with BIAP Systems to Market WebSTAR and OmniSTAR,
a Complete line of Internet Server Software for Macintosh

Mactivity-Boston, MA, 3/14/95 -- StarNine Technologies and BIAP Systems
announced plans for StarNine to market WebSTAR and WebSTAR Pro, the first
industrial-strength World Wide Web servers for Macintosh. Based on
MacHTTP, developed by Chuck Shotton of BIAP Systems, WebSTAR will greatly
enhance the performance and functionality of MacHTTP, the most widely-used
desktop Web server on the Internet.

StarNine also revealed plans to market a complete line of Internet server
products designed to greatly simplify publishing information on the
Internet by taking advantage of the Macintosh's ease-of-use and PowerPC
RISC architecture. The new line will include WebSTAR, MailSTAR (previously
announced as EMail-On-Demand, a Listserver/Mailbot manager due out in the
second quarter), and the OmniSTAR bundle. The bundle will include both
WebSTAR and MailSTAR as well as FTP and Gopher server software for the
Macintosh.

"I am very pleased to be working with StarNine to bring the commercial
version of MacHTTP to market as WebSTAR," said Chuck Shotton, founder of
BIAP Systems. "StarNine's experience as the leading Internet e-mail server
developer for the Mac makes them an ideal partner to build on the early
success of MacHTTP. Our partnership will allow WebSTAR to reach an even
broader market than MacHTTP and bring significant new capabilities to the
product."

"We're very excited about our partnership with Chuck and BIAP Systems
because it represents a major step forward in our mission of providing
powerful and easy-to-use Internet publishing servers," remarked Rusty
Rahm, president of StarNine. "The biggest barrier keeping organizations
from implementing Internet publishing solutions has been the difficulty
setting up and configuring UNIX servers. Our new OmniSTAR line of server
software makes it easy for any Mac user to create a complete Internet
presence with Web, Mailbots, Listservers, FTP and Gopher servers."

WebSTAR will provide a substantial performance increase over MacHTTP. By
taking advantage of Apple's Thread Manager, WebSTAR will handle hundreds
of thousands of WWW transactions a day, while improving the responsiveness
of other server-related processes. In addition, WebSTAR boasts a greatly
enhanced Administrative interface, allowing secure local or remote
administration and monitoring of multiple WebSTAR servers from a single
location. WebSTAR includes additional features such as support for Folder
aliases, allowing WebSTAR servers to serve content from anywhere on an
AppleTalk LAN, user-defined actions allowing pre- and post-processing of
URL requests, and customizable log file formatting. The new server also
includes a richer set of services for supporting AppleScript and
AppleEvents, and an improved interface for common gateway applications
(CGIs). WebSTAR will include complete documentation, HTML tutorials,
AppleScript and examples, and Acrobat Reader software from Adobe.

WebSTAR Pro will include all the new features of WebSTAR as well as
built-in electronic commerce support via the First Virtual Internet
Payment System and secure client/server connections via Netscape
Communications Corporation's Secure Sockets Layer protocol (SSL). First
Virtual is an on-line payment system which requires no additional hardware
or software to implement. Internet customers simply connect to the WebSTAR
Pro server, fill in an on-line order form, and funds are then transferred
automatically from the customers' First Virtual account into the
merchant's. Goods are subsequently exchanged either electronically or
through traditional mechanisms. The system does not require buyers to pass
credit card information over the wire and protects them from fraud by
verifying all transactions with the buyer via e-mail. SSL is a security
protocol that provides authentication, encryption and verification
capabilities. This prevents anyone from eavesdropping on a connection
between an SSL-enabled client such as Netscape and the WebSTAR Pro server
and also ensures the identity of the parties involved as well as the
validity of the data transmitted.

A later release of WebSTAR Pro, due out in the third quarter, will support
the new TCP/IP stack in Apple's forthcoming Open Transport, allowing many
more simultaneous connections to the server. The company said it expects
to ship WebSTAR and WebSTAR Pro by the end of April. Pricing has not yet
been determined.

COMPANY BACKGROUND

StarNine Technologies, Inc., located in Berkeley, CA, is the leading
developer of Internet server software and e-mail connectivity products for
the Macintosh. StarNines Mail*Link product line includes thirteen e-mail
gateways connecting CE Softwares QuickMail, Microsoft Corp.'s Microsoft
Mail for AppleTalk Networks, and Apple Computer, Inc.'s PowerTalk and
PowerShare to the Internet and a wide variety of e-mail systems on other
platforms. Mail*Link Directory Services provides Macintosh users the
ability to look up addresses and other information about users in
heterogeneous networks.

StarNine Technologies, Inc.
510-649-4949 (voice)
510-548-0393 (fax)

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