Host Access Solutions: Terminal Emulation Software and Host Integration

PASSPORT TN3270E/TN3270 Emulator

PASSPORT TN3270E/TN3270 Emulator Free Trial Download

PASSPORT is a powerful TN3270 emulator that includes both enhanced TN3270E emulation and basic TN3270 emulation. PASSPORT is a high quality, reliable, cost effective TN3270 emulator that is fully compatible with Windows Vista®.

PASSPORT is also extremely cost effective. Zephyr provides a subscription based licensing program that reduces your terminal emulation software acquisition cost and maintenance cost significantly. This makes switching from older versions of Attachmate EXTRA!®, IBM Personal Communications/3270®, NetManage Rumba® and WRQ Reflection® to PASSPORT, a very attractive proposition.

Zephyr has a long 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 (IETF) TN3270E/TN5250E Working Group.

TN3270 Emulator Options

There are actually two PASSPORT TN3270 emulators. Each product uses a different method of deployment.

PASSPORT PC TO HOST® is a desktop-based TN3270E/TN3270 emulator. This product is similar to other desktop Windows programs. PASSPORT is installed with a Windows setup program. It can also be deployed using SMS, MSI or deployed from a Citrix terminal server.

PASSPORT WEB TO HOST® is a web-based TN3270E/TN3270 emulator deployed from a web server. The TN3270E/TN3270 emulator 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 TN3270E/TN3270 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 applet running inside Internet Explorer makes a direct TN3270 or TN3270E connection to the IBM zSeries (S/390) mainframe. 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.

TN3270E/TN3270 Telnet Host Connection

PASSPORT supports all telnet features defined in the IETF 1576 (TN3270 Current Practices) and IETF 2355 (TN3270 Enhancements) specifications. Telnet is basically 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 and Microsoft Host Integration Server 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 reestablish the session after a logoff is performed. Hot back up for connection to alternate IP host names is also provided.

TN3270 Emulator Sessions

PASSPORT TN3270 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 TN3270 emulation features are allowed and which are not.

TN3270E SSL Support

The PASSPORT 3270 terminal emulator implements advanced security features using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Version 3 server authentication and encryption providing secure data access across TCP/IP networks. With the built-in security of SSL, your 3270 emulator sessions are now protected from eavesdropping, tampering, or message forgery over TCP/IP. This feature can be critical for those organizations that access sensitive data on corporate mainframes remotely, or across the Internet.

TN3270 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).

IBM 3270 mainframe graphics terminal emulation is also provided. IBM 3472G, 3192G, 3179G Model 2 APA (all points addressable) vector graphics is supported in both model 2 and model 3 screen sizes. IBM 3279 S3G programmed symbol set graphics is supported in both model 2 and model 3 screen sizes. The graphics input cursor is supported. Four different graphic input cursor types can be selected.

Extended attributes provide 8-color display, underline and reverse video. Blinking can be configured to appear as reverse video. A subset of the APL character set is provided for line drawing and other special display characters. Colors can be modified for base and extended colors, OIA line, and screen background. Colors can be selected from the Windows color palette.

There are three standard 3270 terminal emulator fonts provided: a standard PASSPORT font, a PASSPORT thin font, and a PASSPORT true type font. The first two are fast bit-mapped raster fonts, while the true type font provides increased scalability. The size of the font automatically adjusts to the window size. Any other fixed pitch Windows font may also be used.

Advanced Windows clipboard functions are provided including cut, copy, copy append, copy graph, paste and paste continue. There are three paste modes: block, stream and field. Other clipboard options include automatically moving the cursor to the end of the text when text is pasted into a host screen, automatically copying an area of text to the clipboard when selected, and reversing black and white when copying graphics to the clipboard.

Various cursor styles are supported including underline, block, blinking and non-blinking. A cursor ruler (cross hair guide) is provided also. The cursor can be configured to automatically toggle between an underline and block whenever insert mode is on or off.

Hotspots are designated text strings that appear in the host screen that perform specified functions when they are clicked with the mouse. Hotspot functions can be used to send 3270 keys to the host or run a macro script. When hotspots are configured to be visible, they appear like Windows dialog box buttons.

Mouse buttons can be customized to perform special functions, send keys to the host or run a macro script.

PASSPORT PC TO HOST® provides toolbar customization as well as a customizable pop-up keypad to send common keys to the host or run macro scripts. The PASSPORT WEB TO HOST® TN3270E/TN3270 emulator also provides a toolbar and three customizable button bars to send common keys to the host or run macro scripts.

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.

Keyboard Support

PASSPORT supports the standard IBM 101/102 key keyboard. PASSPORT provides several standard keyboard mappings to choose from: PASSPORT, EXTRA!, Rumba and IBM. If you currently use one of these TN3270 emulation programs, simply select the corresponding keyboard map and you instantly have the 3270 keyboard map you are used to using. You can also instantly view the current keyboard map at any time.

The keyboard can be fully customized. Host keys and macro scripts can be reassigned to various key combinations. There are many extended local key functions including selecting text with shifted arrow keys, jumping directly to a session, entry assist, word wrap, and others. The IBM 3179 color and attribute keys are also supported.

Various international keyboard layouts for various countries are provided. The European currency symbol is supported. Numeric field checking can be enabled or disabled. When numeric field checking is enabled, the mainframe application can set field attributes to only allow a user to type numeric data into certain fields.

File Transfer

The IND$FILE file transfer is the standard method of transferring files between a PC and an IBM S/390 (zSeries) mainframe using a 3270 terminal emulation session. Text, binary and custom file types can be transferred using IND$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 terminal 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.

Macro Scripting and API Programming

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 startup 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.

Attachmate EXTRA!® macros can be converted to work with PASSPORT. Attachmate EXTRA!® macros use Visual Basic syntax similar to VB Script and can be easily converted to PASSPORT macros.

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 the PASSPORT software: 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.