F5 Labs Keeps Egghead's Online Store up and Running; BIG/ip2 Technology Guarantees Uninterrupted Access to Egghead.com.

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 17, 1997--F5 Labs, provider of innovative Server Array Controller technology, announced today that their BIG/ip2 has been chosen by Egghead Computer to provide fast and reliable access to Egghead Computer's new online store.

While best known for their 83 retail outlets around the country, Egghead Computer has been successfully serving customers from its electronic commerce site. In the demanding and competitive computer software and hardware market, Egghead has distinguished itself with exceptional selection, value, and service. In order to provide this level of service on the web and to keep their online store open 24 hours a day, seven days a week with fast, reliable response, Egghead relies on F5 Lab's BIG/ip2 technology.

BIG/ip2 is a dedicated Server Array Controller that intelligently allocates Internet and Intranet service requests across a group of network servers. Residing between the Internet routers and an array of servers, BIG/ip2 continually monitors each server for application availability and performance. In addition, it oversees all incoming web queries and automatically directs each service request to the most appropriate and available server for subsequent processing. By balancing all of the incoming web requests across the content servers, the product substantially reduces the possibility of server failures due to overload conditions.

By detecting application, server, and network failures in advance and routing service requests accordingly, the product guarantees fail-safe, timely responses to user queries. Moreover, BIG/ip2 stands alone due to the fact that the product has complete, built-in redundancy. Consequently, there is no single point of failure along the entire path, from backbone to server.

Egghead's site at www.egghead.com, which is ranked seventh on PC Meter's top retail/shopping sites on the web, handles volumes of activity, relying on three Silicon Graphics Challenge L Web servers, each with 1 GB of RAM, 8 R10000CPU's, and 12 GB hard drives. A fourth SGI server acts as a database server. BIG/ip2 automatically pre-processes all incoming web transactions and then directs each one to the server it determines can most effectively and unfailingly respond. The result, even if a server fails, is surefire, timely Internet response regardless of the load.

Prior to installing the BIG/ip2, Egghead relied on a "round-robin" DNS, a system in which random IP addresses to each of Egghead's three web servers are returned with each request. "The Round Robin DNS distributed the connection loads and gave some measure of load balancing," commented Franklin Lerum, Manager for Distributed Systems at Egghead, Inc. "However, round robin DNS does not provide true load balancing, and it doesn't automatically handle hosts that go down."

While Egghead had considered upgrading to a true load balancing system with failover, the high cost and potential disruptions associated with the switchover had discouraged them. Then Lerum heard about F5 Labs. "What really impressed me right from the beginning was the way they believed in their product," Lerum explained. "And the people I spoke to were really knowledgeable."

F5 delivered the system within a week of signing the agreement. The F5 team installed and configured the system in the morning and the switchover took place that same afternoon. Total downtime was less than five minutes. "The engineer from F5 clearly knew the product and the environment well enough to make the switchover," added Lerum. While F5 normally recommends one day for installation and a second for training, the staff at Egghead could not free up two consecutive days from their hectic schedule. F5 conducted the training while installing and configuring the system.

"Not only was the installation flawless, the system has not missed a beat since it was turned on," reports Lerum. "And, the training and documentation were so good that we have only had to make one call to F5 in the entire time since we started using it."

Lerum points out that with BIG/ip2, Egghead is without the headache of having to constantly monitor their servers. The web site administrator now had the free time to focus on other issues such as improving the web site and the site's overall operation.

"You don't realize the money you are spending administering servers until you don't need to baby-sit them anymore. That frees up hours a day that can now be spent on projects that make money and enhance your site," says Lerum. He also points out that Egghead can now take down a server for maintenance or upgrade without worry or time-consuming preparation.

Egghead is now planning to move their database server behind BIG/ip2 so that communication from the web servers will be on the same side. And, Lerum is recommending BIG/ip2 to Surplus Direct, the wholly owned Egghead subsidiary that markets previous-version hardware and software from their Internet site.

About Egghead, Inc.

Egghead, Inc., with revenues of $415 million for fiscal 1997, including recently acquired Surplus Direct, is a reseller of personal computer hardware, software and accessories through 83 storefronts, two warehouse stores, direct mail catalogs (1-800-EGGHEAD) and its Internet site (www.egghead.com). Egghead, in combination with Surplus Direct, a recently acquired subsidiary, is committed to developing the most comprehensive computer products web shopping site in the industry. On the web, the combined companies sell both previous and current version computer hardware and software as well as offer electronic software downloading and a "built-to-suit" computer configuration center, in a variety of venues that include an auction site (www.surplusauction.com) and web warehouses (www.egghead.com and www.surplusdirect.com).

F5 Labs, Inc. is a privately held company that develops and markets server array controller technologies enabling organizations to provide reliable, consistent access to their mission critical Internet and Intranet applications through the fail-safe use of scalable content servers. The company is headquartered in Seattle, WA, and is located on the Web at www.f5.com.

This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including risks related to the highly competitive nature of the computer products retailing industry, the seasonality and quarterly fluctuation results, the early state of the company's new store format, the dependence of the company's sales on the purchase and use of personal computers and software, and the risks detailed in the company's SEC reports, including the report on Form 10-K for the year ended March 29, 1997. Actual results may differ materially.

BIG/IP and BIG/ip2 are trademarks of F5 Labs, Inc. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

NOTE: The "2" that appears in the product name "BIG/IP2" should be superscripted.

CONTACT: F5 Labs

Kristina O'Connell, 206/447-1817

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S&S Public Relations 

Melissa Rabin, 800/287-2279

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