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This is a copy of the C2Net Press Release from 21 Jun 1998


Oakland, CA (June 22, 1998) -- C2Net Software Inc. today announced it has entered into a development agreement with IBM Corporation under which C2Net will port its popular Stronghold Secure Web Server to IBM's Transaction Processing Facility (TPF) - the fastest transaction platform in the world. C2Net will create a version of Stronghold specifically integrated with IBM's TPF technology, used throughout the world as the heart of high-performance systems that power such tasks as airline reservations and credit card authorizations.

TPF is widely acknowledged as the highest-throughput transaction processing platform in the world. Originally the result of an early 1960's project between IBM and several airlines, the TPF platform today provides unmatched processing speed, seamless scalability, mission-critical availability and other essential transaction functions for airlines, leading financial institutions and other corporations worldwide.

Currently, there is no native web server product for the TPF platform. In order to process TPF-powered transactions through a Web-based interface, separate systems designed to serve Web pages are used between the TPF machine and the website. These separate mainframes and minicomputers collect user input from a website, send that information to the TPF server, and then retrieve the transaction's output and post it back to the user. Therefore, transactions can only be processed as fast as the gateway computers can serve the pages, rather than harnessing the immense speed and power of the TPF server itself.

C2Net's Stronghold Secure Web Server is a commercial version of the Apache web server, incorporating full-strength cryptography to ensure against eavesdropping, tampering, and forgery of electronic documents. The Stronghold secure web server is the preferred solution for Internet and intranet administrators who need to be certain that transactions are handled in the most secure environment possible. C2Net's Stronghold is widely regarded as the most robust, easily configurable secure Web server on the market today.

"We are very excited to join forces with IBM to bring Stronghold's speed, power and security to the TPF platform," said Sameer Parekh, President of C2Net Software, Inc. "Administrators of TPF-powered systems will benefit greatly by having a direct gateway to the Web. We are proud to be providing technology to securely connect these immense systems to the Internet without compromising their best-of-breed performance in any way."

With Stronghold, IBM's customers will be able to serve pages directly to Web users directly from the TPF server. This will mean faster web-based credit card verification, travel reservations, and other common transactions. In addition, Stronghold brings its advanced security technology to each TPF transaction. "Web commerce will never be the same," said Steve Cook, C2Net's Vice President of Sales and Marketing. "Stronghold brings the Web solution, IBM brings the power, and the whole world benefits from a new high-performance platform for electronic transactions over the Internet."


C2Net Software, Inc. (http://www.c2.net/) is the leading provider of uncompromised network security software. The company's Stronghold secure web server is currently the number one full-strength secure web server worldwide, according to a secure web server survey by Netcraft, Ltd (http://www.netcraft.com/).