Eggheads and Gearheads; CPUs and RPMs - C I Host Sponsors Nascar Race Car; Nascar Sponsorship is Latest in a Line of Quirky Marketing Gimmicks - From Evander Holyfield to Santa Claus.

Business Editors/High Tech Writers

BEDFORD, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 11, 2002

Arguably, Christopher Faulkner and his crew are more at home figuring out how to make ones and zeros fly through fiber optic cable than how to make rubber and steel race across asphalt.

But that doesn't mean that the eggheads at C I Host don't appreciate their gearhead counterparts on the Nascar circuit - or that they don't recognize a wise marketing move when it rolls up to their door.

In fact, C I Host has a tradition of using nontraditional venues to build brand equity. The firm's name was seen on the back of Evander Holyfield's boxing trunks by the millions who watched one of his title matches, and was heard by thousands more who welcomed Howard Stern back to Dallas radio.

A 25-foot high Santa Claus greeted Bedford residents from the roof of C I Host's building during the 2001 holiday season. And this month, those who view the Miss Fort Worth USA Pageant will see C I Host's name side by side with young women competing to win scholarships.

So sponsoring a bright yellow Nascar race car -- # 94 -- is right in keeping with the kind of playful marketing plan that has made C I Host one of competitive and successful web hosting companies in the business.

"C I Host is about speed and being at the top of your game," said Faulkner, 25, founder and CEO of C I Host. "We certainly have that in common with Nascar. We are about winning, not just for ourselves, but for all our customers. C I Host's theme for 2002 is `Bigger and Better.' We offer our customers a bigger network and better support."

C I Host recently expanded its bandwidth for the third time in a year and invested in a superior routing service to keep ahead if its customers' needs and ensure maximum uptime. C I Host was one of the first companies to take its web site completely wireless and give customers complete access to their own sites from hand-held devices.

C I Host has remained fiscally strong throughout the uncertain economic times that have seen several other companies go under. C I Host is adding services, including remote image hosting, and is expanding its European operations with new centers opening this year in London and Frankfort. There are now facilities in Texas, Los Angeles, Chicago and Baltimore with new centers opening in Japan and India by the end of the year.

And, like Nascar, C I Host is ever vigilant regarding security and safety issues. C I Host was one of the few Internet firms that completely patched its servers against Code Red in 2001, thus saving its clients most of the headaches of that worm. In addition, Faulkner sits on the board of the United Federation of ChildSafe Web Sites, (UFCWS), which is also hosted by CI Host.

All the Nascar races in which C I Host's car is scheduled to race will be televised on NBC. They include:

- March 2, Sam's Town 300, Las Vegas Motor Speedway

- April 6, O'Reilly 300, Texas Motor Speedway

- April 13, Pepsi 300, Nashville Superspeedway

- April 20, Talladega 300, Talladega Superspeedway

- April 27, Auto Club 300, California Speedway

- July 13, Hills Brothers Coffee 300, Chicagoland Speedway

- July 27, Pikes Peak International Raceway

- October 19, Memphis Motorsports Park

- November 9, Phoenix International Raceway

- GNC Live Well 300, Homestead-Miami Speedway

- 03/10/02 MBNA America 500 Atlanta Motor Speedway FOX/12:30 p.m., PRN/12:15
p.m.

- 03/17/02 Carolina Dodge Dealers 400 Darlington Raceway FOX/12:30 p.m.,
MRN/12:30 p.m.

- 03/24/02 Food City 500 Bristol Motor Speedway FOX/12:30 p.m., PRN/12:30 p.m.

- 04/07/02 Samsung/RadioShack 500 Texas Motor Speedway FOX/1:30 p.m., PRN/12:30
p.m.

- 04/14/02 Virginia 500 Martinsville Speedway FX/12:30 p.m. MRN/12:30 p.m.

- 04/21/02 Talladega 500 Talladega Superspeedway FOX/1:30 p.m., MRN/12:30 p.m.

- 04/28/02 NAPA Auto Parts 500 California Speedway FOX/2:30 p.m. MRN/2 p.m.

- 05/04/02 Pontiac Excitement 400 Richmond Int'l Raceway FX/7:30 p.m., MRN/
7:30 p.m.

- 05/18/02 The Winston Lowe's Motor Speedway FX/7 p.m. MRN/7 p.m.

- 05/26/02 Coca-Cola 600 Lowe's Motor Speedway FOX/5 p.m. PRN/4:45 p.m.

- 06/02/02 MBNA Platinum 400 Dover Downs Int'l Speedway FX/12:30 p.m. MRN/12:30
p.m. 06/09/02

- Pocono 500 Pocono Raceway FOX/12:30 p.m. MRN/12:30 p.m.

- 06/16/02 Michigan 400 Michigan Int'l Speedway FOX/12:30 p.m., MRN/12:30p.m.

- 06/23/02 Dodge/Save Mart 350 Sears Point Raceway FOX/2:30 p.m.PRN/3:45 p.m.

- 07/06/02 Pepsi 400 Daytona Int'l Speedway FOX/7 p.m. MRN/7:30 p.m.

- 07/14/02 Tropicana 400 Chicagoland Speedway NBC/TBA MRN/2 p.m.

- 07/21/02 New England 300 New Hampshire Int'l Speedway TNT/TBA MRN/1:30 p.m.

- 07/28/02 Pennsylvania 500 Pocono Raceway TNT/TBA MRN/12:30 p.m.

- 08/04/02 Brickyard 400 Indianapolis Motor Speedway NBC/TBA IMS/TBA

- 08/11/02 Watkins Glen International Watkins Glen International NBC/TBA,
MRN/12:30 p.m.

- 08/18/02 Pepsi 400 Michigan Int'l Speedway TNT/TBA MRN/1:30 p.m.

- 08/24/02 Sharpie 500 Bristol Motor Speedway TNT/TBA PRN/7:15 p.m.

- 09/01/02 Mountain Dew Southern 500 Darlington Raceway TNT/TBA, MRN/12:30 p.m.


- 09/07/02 Chevy Monte Carlo 400 Richmond Int'l Raceway TNT/TBAMRN/7:30 p.m.

- 09/15/02 New Hampshire 300 New Hampshire Int'l Speedway NBC/TBAMRN/1:30 p.m.

- 09/22/02 MBNA America 400 Dover Downs Int'l Speedway TNT/TBAMRN/12:30 p.m.

- 09/29/02 Protection One 400 Kansas Speedway NBC/TBA MRN/12:30 p.m.

- 10/06/02 EA Sports 500 Talladega Superspeedway NBC/TBA MRN/12:30 p.m.

- 10/13/02 UAW-GM Quality 500 Lowe's Motor Speedway NBC/TBPRN/12:15p.m.

- 10/20/02 Martinsville 500 Martinsville Speedway NBC/TBA MRN/12 p.m.

- 10/27/02 NAPA 500 Atlanta Motor Speedway NBC/TBA PRN/11:45 a.m.

- 11/03/02 Pop Secret 400 North Carolina Speedway TNT/TBA MRN/12:30p.m.

- 11/10/02 Checker Auto Parts 500K Phoenix Int'l Raceway NBC/TBA MRN/2p.m.

- 11/17/02 Homestead 400 Homestead-Miami Speedway NBC/TBA MRN/12 p.m.

"This type of advertising is a wise move and we are seeing more nontraditional types of companies sponsoring race cars," said Tim Farina of Javanni, Inc., the advertising broker who placed the ad. "You even have food companies getting into the act. It's all about branding."

About C I Host

C I Host (www.cihost.com), is a Web hosting and Internet solutions provider, domain name registrar (DNR) and application service provider (ASP) serving 149,000 individual consumers and businesses in 179 countries worldwide.

C I Host creates business-class hosting solutions for the small- and medium-enterprise (SME) market, with the broadest portfolio of managed hosting and value-added services in the industry. C I Host is accredited by ICANN to register domain names.

C I Host is consistently ranked among the Top 5 Web hosting companies out of 16,000 around the globe by c|net's Ultimate Web Host List, HostIndex.com, and Web Host Directory. C I Host offers turnkey services ranging from initial domain name registration to custom dedicated servers for e-commerce on today's Web. The company offers innovative packages and services to the Internet community.

C I Host operates three diverse data centers across the United States, with its main facility and Network Operations Center in Bedford, Texas. C I Host also has offices in Los Angeles, Baltimore, Chicago and London.

All telco-grade, tier-1 data centers are wholly-owned and operated by C I Host and consist of redundant diesel generator backups and a temperature-controlled secure environment with fully redundant UPS capability. All server hardware is fully tested and configured for optimal performance. Daily Web server backups and full fire protection guard against any data loss. To deliver speed and reliability, C I Host's servers are connected to five DS-3 and OC-3 lines from five diverse Internet backbones for a total of more than 780 Megabits of available bandwidth.