Networld+Interop, LAS VEGAS -- May 6, 1997 -- AltaVista Internet Software, Inc., a subsidiary of Digital Equipment Corporation, and Sun Microsystems, Inc. today announced that two AltaVista intranet software products will be ported to Sun's Solaris™ operating environment. These offerings will enable users to easily find valuable corporate data located on their Solaris-based intranets, and to create secure virtual private networks.

The two products are AltaVista Search Intranet eXtension 97, a powerful search engine for company intranets, and AltaVista Tunnel 97, which provides secure and cost-effective intranet access over the public Internet for mobile or telecommuting workers.

AltaVista Internet Software, Inc. has also become a member of the Sun Catalyst Developer program, which helps developers build, deliver and market applications supporting Solaris and other SunÔ products. Currently, Sun's Catalyst Developer program has plans to use some of these key AltaVista technologies to strengthen its ability to serve program members with faster searches and more robust intranet-access capabilities.

"As a leading environment for company intranets, Solaris is an excellent platform for AltaVista solutions," said Ilene H. Lang, president and CEO of AltaVista Internet Software, Inc. "Solaris' customers will now be able to find and share information securely and cost-effectively on their intranet, using AltaVista Search and AltaVista Tunnel."

"Solaris provides the Internet equivalent of today's dial tone, enabling users to take advantage of their network anytime, anywhere. AltaVista provides the search tools to help ensure that users have the right information when they need it," said Janpieter Scheerder, president of SunSoft. "According to a March 1997 Forrester Research, Inc., report entitled ‘Building Intranet Services,’ nearly three-quarters of the 50 Fortune 1000 network managers interviewed will deploy full service intranets sometime in the future. With the availability of AltaVista's products on the Solaris operating environment, Sun customers now have a powerful search engine to find and utilize information on their intranets to make better business decisions."

ALTAVISTA PRODUCT INFORMATION:

AltaVista Search Intranet eXtension 97 brings the capabilities of the AltaVista Search Public Service to private intranets, giving anyone, anywhere in the enterprise the ability to find the information they need to be more effective and productive.

Using the same super-spider technology as the AltaVista Search Public Service, AltaVista Search Intranet eXtension 97 crawls all the Web servers throughout the enterprise, as well as selected World Wide Web sites, indexing every word in every HTML page, every text document and many popular office-type documents. With the familiar AltaVista Search page on any Web browser, users easily locate all the Web pages and documents that contain specified words or phrases. A listing of results is presented in seconds, and each item in the listing is hyperlinked directly to the Web page or document referenced.

AltaVista Search Intranet eXtension 97 is easily customized to crawl only specified servers behind the firewall or on the Web. Individual servers or web pages can also be excluded from the crawl with the use of the Standard for Robot Exclusion. AltaVista Search Intranet eXtension 97 can accommodate terabytes of Web data -- easily scaling upward as Web-based information repositories grow. AltaVista Search Intranet eXtension 97 for the Solaris operating environment is priced from $15,999, and is expected to be available in mid-July.

AltaVista Tunnel 97 extends the reach of a company's intranet to create a virtual private network that securely and cost-effectively provides access for mobile or telecommuting workers from anywhere at any time. AltaVista Tunnel 97 allows authorized users to access a private network -- through any brand of firewall -- from virtually anywhere over the public Internet.

Unlike a leased line that continuously links two sites, AltaVista Tunnel 97 is dynamic: it can be instantly brought up or taken down from wherever the worker is located, connecting him or her to any preferred business site. AltaVista Tunnel 97 is priced from $995 (in the Workgroup Edition for 50 concurrent users), and is expected to be available for the Solaris operating environment in Fall, 1997.

About Solaris Operating Environment
The Solaris operating environment includes six key characteristics customers need in order to successfully conduct business, including round-the-clock availability, which lowers total cost of ownership and enables a higher return on investment; expandability to handle continuous growth; accessibility for access anywhere, anytime; ease-of-use for managing their operating environment with familiar, simple, point-and-click interfaces; a safe environment for exchange of sensitive data; and speed for rapid handling of compute-intensive tasks.

About AltaVista Internet Software, Inc.
AltaVista's vision is OnSite Computing -- leveraging the real benefit of the Internet's universal presence of being able to do business wherever you are. AltaVista's OnSite Computing solutions includes the AltaVista Search Network, AltaVista Search services and software, AltaVista Firewall and Tunnel security solutions, as well as NT-based directory, mail and library solutions, all providing secure, simple and direct access to information and people over the Internet and private Intranets. AltaVista Internet Software, Inc. is a Digital company. Further information is available at http://altavista.software.digital.com, or by calling 1-800-336-7890.

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision, "The Network Is The Computer™," has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc., (NASDAQ "SUNW"), to its position as a leading provider of hardware, software and services for establishing enterprise-wide intranets and expanding the power of the Internet. With more than $7 billion in annual revenues, Sun can be found in more than 150 countries and on the World Wide Web at http://www.sun.com.

Sun, the Sun logo, Sun Microsystems, SunSoft, The Network Is The Computer, and Solaris are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries. AltaVista and the AltaVista logo are trademarks of Digital Equipment Corporation.

Press Contacts:
Chuck Malkiel
AltaVista Internet Software, Inc.
978-506-2902
chuck.malkiel@altavista.digital.com