Allaire Forums 2.0 Offers Dynamic New Features for High-Performance Web Conferencing and Threaded Discussions; Forums 2.0 Works with Cold Fusion 2.0 to Turn Any Internet or Intranet Web Site Into an Interactive Forum.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 17, 1997--Allaire Corp., a leading Internet software firm and developer of Cold Fusion, today announced the release of Allaire Forums 2.0, a high-performance Web conferencing application that transforms any Web site from a static billboard into a dynamic, interactive community.

New features include an enhanced graphical user interface to encourage end user participation, expanded search and archiving capabilities, and a sophisticated security framework for conference-level administration.

Forums 2.0 works with Cold Fusion 2.0, Allaire's market-leading Web application development software, to allow Web developers to easily add interactive discussions to dynamic Web sites on intranets and the Internet. It meets the needs of corporate developers, solution providers, and Web hosting services by giving Web site visitors the ability to participate in interactive discussions, collaborate without installing special client software, and reach a wide audience.

Web developers already using Cold Fusion 2.0 will find Forums 2.0 is a natural extension of their existing work and will seamlessly integrate with their other Web applications to create sophisticated Web sites. It extends Cold Fusion-powered sites by providing flexible tools to bring interactive discussions to a Web site without any additional development time or resources. Using Forums 2.0, developers can easily integrate conferences into their Web sites with fully customizable graphics for each conference, choosing from the variety of graphical themes provided by Allaire or by creating their own.

"We are seeing an increasing demand from Web developers who want to take their sites beyond the traditional static, one way dissemination of information," said Jeremy Allaire, director of technology strategy for Allaire Corp. "Forums 2.0, in conjunction with Cold Fusion, makes it easy for Web developers to add an interactive dimension to their Web sites which increases participation and transforms a site into a tool for communication and collaboration."

By using the Cold Fusion application server, Forums 2.0 offers reliable, high performance even on the most demanding Web sites. It ships with the Microsoft Jet Engine database engine and an optional upgrade kit to Microsoft SQL Server to reliably meet the needs of high traffic Web sites.

New Features Offer Customizability and Control

Forums 2.0 lets users who are working from remote locations and different client machines collaborate and exchange information in an easy-to-use system that does not require special client installations. An array of new features and enhancements make Forums 2.0 one of the most powerful Web conferencing application tools on the market today. New features include:

-- Sophisticated security framework for conference-level administration and multiple conference datasources (for hosts with multiple customers)

-- File and document attachments and uploading so users can exchange files along with messages in a discussion group

-- Exceptionally clear end-user interface for more customizability (includes frames option, font control, single message view, collapsible forums)

-- Full administrative control over graphical look and feel (use of themes or different graphical looks on each conference, control over forum order, fonts, colors and graphics)

-- Subscription to threads for e-mail notification when new messages are posted

-- Full reporting features using Java graphs to get information on traffic, postings, and other conference parameters

-- Archiving of messages and threads for increased performance on high-volume sites

-- Expanded moderator functions and privileges, including message approval

-- New help documentation

-- High-performance full-text searching of messages and threads

These features and enhancements are designed to increases end-user participation, repeat visits, and traffic on a Web site through interaction and community development not available in a typical static site.

The Benefits of Web Conferencing

Web conferencing offers a new alternative to the problem of creating online conferences. Unlike existing conferencing technology, a Web conference runs entirely in a Web browser without any special client software, controls, or browser plug-ins. The conferences, threads, and messages are viewed in HTML Web pages, and all of the messages are posted via HTML forms -- right out of the browser. Web conferences offer a number of advantages over traditional conferencing technology. Most notably, they can be easily integrated into the look and feel of a Web site and do not require standardization on any special client software. Also, because of the intuitive nature of a hypertext user interface, they are very easy to use.

Forums 2.0 can be used on both the Internet and intranets for a wide range of Web conferencing purposes, such as online communities and interest groups around particular issues or Web sites; customer service and interaction via the Web; corporate communication between departments; department-level collaboration as well as enterprise-wide collaboration between users in remote locations; secure communication between companies and business partners; and communication between users in field sales and service.

Price, Availability, and Systems Requirements

The stand-alone SRP for Forums 2.0 is $395. Users who purchase Forums 2.0 at the same time that they purchase Cold Fusion 2.0 will be offered a $100 discount off of the SRP. An annual subscription for Forums is available for $195. An evaluation beta is now available for download. The final version will be available in April. Forums 2.0 can be purchased from Allaire Sales at [phone].

Forums 2.0 requires a Windows NT 3.51 (or higher) or Windows 95 Web server, Intel 486 or higher (Pentium recommended), 24MB RAM (32MB recommended), a Web server that supports ISAPI, NSAPI, or WSAPI, and Cold Fusion 2.0.

About Allaire Corp.

Allaire Corp. is a leading provider of Web application development tools. Allaire's products include Cold Fusion Professional, HomeSite, and Allaire Forums. Customers include Fortune 500 firms, small and medium sized business, major universities, government agencies, and Web presence providers worldwide. Allaire was founded in 1995 and is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. For more information, contact Allaire Corp. directly at [phone], by e-mail at [e-mail], or visit Allaire's Web site at www.allaire.com . -0-

NOTE TO EDITORS: Cold Fusion is a U.S. registered trademark and Allaire, HomeSite, and Allaire Forums are trademarks of Allaire Corp. All other company names, brand names and product names are trademarks of their respective holder(s).

CONTACT: Allaire Corp.

Adam Berrey, 617/761-2000

[e-mail]

or

Miller/Shandwick Technologies

Richard Burger, 415/962-9550

[e-mail]