3270 Terminal Emulation for Windows

PASSPORT IBM® 3270 Terminal Emulation

TN3270 and TN3270E Terminal Emulator

PASSPORT IBM 3270 Terminal Emulation Trial Download

PASSPORT IBM 3270 terminal emulation provides high quality, reliable TN3270 and TN3270E access to IBM mainframe applications from Windows Vista® desktops.

Zephyr has a solid history of developing innovative host access solutions. Founded in 1985, Zephyr is a Microsoft Certified Solution Partner, Citrix Premier Alliance Partner, a member of IBM PartnerWorld for Developers, Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN), Cisco Enterprise Associates Program (EAP), and the Internet Engineering Task Force.

PASSPORT IBM 3270 emulation is extremely cost effective. Zephyr provides a subscription based licensing program that reduces your IBM 3270 emulation acquisition cost and maintenance cost significantly. This makes upgrading from an older version of Attachmate EXTRA!®, IBM AS/400 Client Access®, IBM Personal Communications/3270, NetManage Rumba® or WRQ® Reflection® a very attractive proposition.

PASSPORT Highlights

• Provides access to IBM mainframe, AS/400 and UNIX host applications
• TN3270, TN3270E, TN5250, TN5250E, VT420, VT100, SCO ANSI and Wyse 60 terminal emulation
• Standalone FTP client and integrated FTP file transfer within terminal emulation session
• PASSPORT PC TO HOST® is certified for Windows Vista®
• Supports Windows XP and 2000
• Advanced SSL security available for each host session
• Advanced SSH security available for each UNIX host session
• Secure FTP file transfer using SSL and SSH security
• IND$FILE file transfer to IBM mainframe
• Supports Citrix Password Manager
• HLLAPI available to reuse existing screen scraping applications
• Attachmate-compatible EXTRA! Objects API to reuse existing EXTRA! screen scraping applications
• VBScript to record, edit and run productivity enhancing macros
• Host printing supported through the TN3270E or TN5250E client
• Pass-through printing available for VT or SCO ANSI client
• Ability to open multiple host sessions, uniquely configure each session
• Customizable keyboard layout, mouse buttons, keypads, toolbars, hotspots, colors, fonts, cursor and more

IBM 3270 Terminal Emulation Deployment

There are actually two PASSPORT IBM 3270 terminal emulation client suites, each offering a different method of deployment.

PASSPORT WEB TO HOST® is web-based IBM 3270 emulation that includes TN3270 and TN3270E terminal emulators, in addition to TN5250, TN5250E, VT/100, VT/220, SCO ANSI and FTP clients, that are deployed from a web server. The 3270 emulation is installed on a web server and provides an administrator program for centralized configuration and administration. All software and configuration files reside on the web server. When the terminal emulator is run, an ActiveX applet is downloaded from the web server to the client desktop and run inside of Internet Explorer. The ActiveX component is only downloaded the first time a session is launched, or whenever the server version of the ActiveX component changes to a newer version. The ActiveX client running inside Internet Explorer makes a direct TN3270 or TN3270E connection to the IBM mainframe or other host system.

PASSPORT PC TO HOST® is desktop-based IBM 3270 emulation that includes TN3270 and TN3270E terminal emulators, in addition to TN5250, TN5250E, VT/100, VT/220, SCO ANSI and FTP clients. This product is similar to other desktop-based Windows programs. PASSPORT is installed with a Windows setup program. It can also be deployed using SMS, MSI, Citrix or Microsoft Terminal Server.

TN3270 and TN3270E Connection Support

PASSPORT supports all telnet features defined in the IETF 1576 (TN3270 Current Practices) and IETF 2355 (TN3270 Enhancements) specifications. Telnet is terminal emulation that uses the TCP/IP Internet protocol for communication between a telnet client and server. PASSPORT is compatible with all TN3270 and TN3270E servers that support these IETF specifications.

These TN3270 telnet servers include the IBM Communication Server that is provided with IBM zOS, OS/390, MVS TCP/IP and VM TCP/IP. For IBM VSE, the Telnet TN3270 servers from Connectivity Systems and Barnard Systems are supported. The Cisco CIP and CPA TN3270 servers, Microsoft SNA Server, Microsoft HIS Server and others are are also supported.

PASSPORT provides connection to generic, dedicated and specific LU pools. Full support for NVT, SSCP-LU and LU-LU sessions is provided. Auto-reconnect is configured to automatically re-establish the session after a logoff is performed. Hot back up for connection to alternate IP host names is also provided.

IBM 3270 Emulation Sessions

PASSPORT IBM 3270 display and TN3270E host printer sessions are supported. Up to 26 sessions can be active at one time on one workstation. New sessions can be easily created, opened and saved. A layout of multiple sessions can be saved as a desktop icon. When this icon is activated, multiple sessions are started at one time. A menu security feature allows an administrator to decide what IBM 3270 emulation features are allowed and which are not.

IBM 3270 Emulation Display Sessions

PASSPORT supports many IBM 3270 terminal types. The term IBM 3270 actually refers to an entire family of IBM mainframe host connectivity devices. Terminal emulation for both the monochrome IBM 3278 and the extended color IBM 3279 terminal are supported with four different screen sizes each. The screen sizes include model 2 (24 rows x 80 columns), model 3 (32 rows x 80 columns), model 4 (43 rows x 80 columns), and model 5 (27 rows x 132 columns).

TN3270E Host Printer Sessions

PASSPORT provides IBM 3287 LU type 1 and LU type 3 host printer emulation. The LU type 3 printer emulation is also known as Data Stream Control (DSC) host printing and is an older method of building and printing pages of host data. The LU type 1 printer emulation is referred to as SNA Character Sting (SCS) host printing and provides newer more advanced printing functions such as transparent printing. Transparent printing allows the IBM mainframe application to send character codes directly to the printer without any EBCDIC to ANSI code page translation.

The printer session provides many configuration options including the font, number of rows and columns on the page, printer margins, transparent printing, printer initialization and closing character strings, modification of host code page translation tables, as well as many other features.

3270 File Transfer

The IND$FILE file transfer is the standard method of transferring files between a PC and an IBM S/390 (zSeries) mainframe using a TN3270 terminal emulator session. Text, binary and custom file types can be transferred using IND$FILE. When using this type of file transfer, the 3270 emulation session is busy until the file transfer is complete. PASSPORT uses an asynchronous interface to the Windows sockets TCP/IP driver. This results in the fastest file transfer data rate possible using a minimum amount of system resources.

The FTP (File Transfer Protocol) file transfer is a newer method of transferring files between a PC and an IBM mainframe. This protocol does not use the 3270 emulation session. Instead, an FTP server must be present on the host computer. The FTP file transfer is actually a separate PC program and can be launched from the menu command or from the Windows Start->Programs menu. Transferring of files can be initiated in multiple ways, including drag and drop and cut/copy/paste. The FTP client has the look and feel of Windows Explorer with a menu bar, toolbar, status bar, three window panes (PC directory structure and file list, host directory structure and file list, connection log and error messages) that can be interactively resized and displayed as icons, details or list. The PASSPORT FTP client program adheres to full compliance with the IETF RFC 959 (File Transfer Protocol) specifications. FTP is a standard Internet protocol, just like the telnet protocol is.

IBM 3270 Macro Scripting

The PASSPORT macro scripting language is based on the Microsoft Visual Basic scripting language. Macro scripts are used to automate common repetitive tasks. A macro script can be assigned to a key on the keyboard, keypad, toolbar, button bar or mouse button. A macro script can be run when hotspot text is clicked on with the mouse. A start-up logon macro can be configured to automatically run after connection when the host session is established.

When a macro command is executed, PASSPORT runs a separate program that is actually a HLLAPI application. This HLLAPI application utilizes both the Microsoft VB Script and the PASSPORT HLLAPI module to run the macro.

IBM 3270 API Programming with PASSPORT

HLLAPI (High Level Language Application Program Interface) is an industry standard method for writing PC based programs that need to communicate with an IBM S/390 (zSeries) mainframe system using a 3270 terminal emulation program. Typical HLLAPI applications can present users with a more friendly user interface to host applications and can be used to automate routine functions such as file transfer. The PASSPORT 3270 emulation program supports 32-bit application programs, but does not support 16-bit HLLAPI or DOS HLLAPI programs.

PASSPORT provides an API (Application Programming Interface) compatible with the object oriented Attachmate EXTRA!® OLE automation support API. This interface exposes terminal emulation objects such as the entire group of sessions, a single session, screen, keypad, etc.

This object oriented API can be used by C++, Visual Basic, VB Script, Java Script and other applications that require host access and/or need to control multiple host sessions. This API is also used when running Attachmate EXTRA!® macros that have been converted to run as PASSPORT macros.

Quicktrial or Download Options

There are two ways to evaluate PASSPORT IBM 3270 terminal emulation: either download a copy of the software or do a QuickTrial of the PASSPORT WEB TO HOST® application. With QuickTrial, there is no server installation, you simply download the client from our web server. This is a fast and easy way to look at the PASSPORT WEB TO HOST® software. For those that want to install the PASSPORT WEB TO HOST® software on their own web server, you can download the full working copy of the software and complete a full evaluation.