A major price and product strategy overhaul for MDG's Web Server 4D knocks up to 40-percent off this line-up of Macintosh web servering software. Now Mac-based webmasters can launch or upgrade their sites to a "wicked-fast" database webserver for $295 instead of $495.

"The total web server market is competitive and the pricing on every platform has dropped in the past months, except for the Macintosh platform," explained Michael Ginsberg, the President of MDG Computer Services, Inc. "The Macintosh platform has been dominated by a single product and the standard pricing has been set relatively high."

"When we delivered Web Server 4D last year, we priced our product based on the competition. Our product has always offered more built-in features. Web Server 4D now offers more features for half the price", claims Ginsberg.

The new strategy gives customers a five-way-decision as to what flavor of Web Server 4D fits them best. The Web Server 4D product line-up includes three new options and lower prices.

MDG, a small, cutting-edge Mac developer, is shifting its sales efforts back to its internet roots. Ginsberg said, "Our development frenzy has been so rapid that boxes shipped to the resellers were going out of date as they shipped. The user base for Web Server 4D has reached a level of a critical mass to help forward the feature list."

"Our customers are sophisticated, net-intelligent people who want to download the very latest version of the software," said Ginsberg.

Our product is developing so fast due to the distributed development efforts of a critical mass of customers and powerful programmers now on-board. The shelf-life for Web Server 4D boxes was turning into an economic nightmare. The Internet is a much better form of distribution for such a fast-paced product.

Price cut summary:

Web Server 4D Standalone is $295, was $495;

Web Server 4D Download is $245, was $395;

Web Server 4D Developer with open source code for ITK owners is $695, (new selection);

Web Server 4D Developer with open source code bundled with the ITK Toolkit is $1,090, (new selection);

Web Server 4D as part of the Village Compass Bundle is $1,475, (new selection).

Web Server 4D Developer is an open-source-code option. The open code allows complete customization of the web server and for integration with existing databases. Open-code commercial-grade web servers are rare -- especially for the Macintosh market.

Web Server 4D is now compatible with Internet Toolkit (ITK) by JCA TE9lE9matique and comes either bundled or unbundled with ITK. "By supporting ITK, we will be able to deliver our Windows version of Web Server 4D within this quarter." JCA is currently beta testing a Windows version of ITK.

Product Description

Web Server 4D offers a complete web server environment. This includes database integration for tracking users, previous visited page, browsers being used and searchable database.

Web Server 4D has a robust relational database which includes clickable map support, forms to Email, Guest Books, Pop-up Navigation, buffering of HTML pages, server side includes, and Odometer page counts without using CGI or plug-ins. Web Server 4D supports CGIs and AppleScript too.

Web Server 4D can intelligently serve different pages depending on the browser, domain name or IP Address. With this feature webmasters are building different pages for clients with browsers that support tables, frames, Java or repeat visitors. Specific pages are served to the clients automatically only if the browser supports them. With Domain exceptions, the server could serve different home pages in different languages automatically.

Web Server 4D offers complete Authentication for password protecting any page or folder by user or group. All accesses to protected areas are tracked in the database for each security realm, user and group.

Web Server 4D includes a configurable database which allows a database to be placed on the Internet in minutes. All the HTML for adding and searching the database is automatically generated -- no need to write HTML.

Web Server 4D has been shipping since November 10, 1995 and the current version number is 1.0.1. A download purchase of Web Server 4D >from MDG Computer Services, Inc. costs $245. Web Server 4D Developer is available for $695 and includes uncompiled source code.

Special pricing is available for the purchase of multiple copies and educational institutions.

Download a free demo of Web Server 4D . The demo gives 300 hours of start-and-stop operation. The demo is a full-working copy and switches to the full version with the secured e-mail purchase of a serial number.

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