eSP's Stay-Linked 7.1 Leverages Client2Host Architecture With New Productivity-Enhancing Features for Enterprise Customers

New Version of Wireless Terminal Solution Adds Support for Device-Independent Session Transfers, Multiple Levels of Failover, Sarbanes-Oxley Driven Security Compliance, and Programmable Scanner Control for Data Error Handling

eBusiness Solution Pros, Inc. (eSP), developer of the award-winning Stay-Linked® thin-client software solution for wireless terminal environments, has introduced Stay-Linked Version 7.1, which adds several important new features to enhance productivity, including centralized session transfer capability, terminal emulation based on Secure Shell (SSH), multi-level backup Telnet/SSH host support, and an expanded application programming interface (API).

The market leader in host-based, thin-client wireless terminal emulation, Stay-Linked provides centralized, secure, high-performance wireless access to 5250/3270, VT100/220 and SSHv2 host-based screen applications, with support for a wide range of wireless terminal devices from Symbol, Intermec, AML, PSC, HHP, LXE and other manufacturers.

"The availability of these new features in Version 7.1 is the result of direct requests from our enterprise-class Stay-Linked customers," said Mike Pagani, eSP's vice president of sales and marketing. "Moreover, the functional benefits of these enhancements were made possible because of Stay-Linked's unique Client2Host(TM) architecture. If possible at all, they would have been extremely difficult and inherently inefficient to implement if we had adopted the typical device-side emulation strategy." With Client2Host architecture, all terminal emulation and client device/session control runs natively on the same host system as the Telnet or SSH server, with only a thin-client software component loaded on each wireless terminal device.

The new session transfer feature is a device-independent function of the Stay-Linked Administrator, a Windows GUI help-desk console application that provides Stay-Linked's Advanced Terminal Session Management (ATSM) capabilities. This new feature allows centrally deployed IT/support staff to transfer a user's session, preserved on the host, to a new device in the event that his or her original device becomes disabled or unusable for one reason or another; the replacement device can be the same type, a different type, or even a legacy device, which can now be used as a spare. Stay-Linked ATSM features allow administrators to view and control host-based wireless terminal user sessions in real time; when temporary disruptions in wireless device-to-host access occur, users are automatically returned to their original wireless session as soon as access is restored -- the exact same screen and cursor location.

SSH-based terminal emulation -- previously announced and generally available with the release of Stay-Linked 7.1 -- is a more secure alternative to Telnet-based terminal emulation. It enables enterprises to completely eliminate Telnet as a protocol from their host terminal application environment -- an increasingly common IT request driven by elements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

Version 7.1 now offers support for multiple levels of automated failover to backup Telnet/SSH hosts, configurable within the Stay-Linked server. If the user cannot connect to the primary target Telnet/SSH host system, Stay-Linked will automatically try to connect them to the first, and then subsequent, configured secondary backup hosts.

A new Stay-Linked Host API enhancement gives application programmers the ability to programmatically disable and re-enable the scanner laser on wireless terminal devices. This new functionality eliminates a very common and costly problem experienced in ADC (automatic data capture) inventory applications. Typically, end users do not see that a prior scan yielded an error within the inventory application and scans the next item anyway. This new Stay-Linked API functionality can be used to interrupt a user's scanning flow by disabling the scanner when a specific error condition occurs -- e.g., invalid item -- forcing the user to hit a specific key to acknowledge the error and re-enable the laser prior to moving on to scanning the next item.

Like Version 7, Stay-Linked 7.1 enables IT support staff -- in real time -- to centrally configure and manage the automatic deployment of Stay-Linked thin client software packages to devices; manage Stay-Linked terminal emulation settings; monitor, take control of, or share any terminal session running under the control of the Stay-Linked server software on the host computer, regardless of the device's status; send text messages; send and retrieve files; reboot selected devices; and restart Stay-Linked software on any terminal device connected to a Stay-Linked server on the host computer.

Stay-Linked Version 7.1 will be available starting January 31 as a free downloadable upgrade for all Stay-Linked 7.0 users with a current support and maintenance agreement, as well as from eSP-authorized Stay-Linked Certified Partner resellers. For new customers, Stay-Linked 7.1 installs quickly and easily and is offered fully functional on a no-charge, 30-day evaluation basis by eSP-authorized Stay-Linked Certified Partner resellers.

More information is available from eBusiness Solution Pros, Inc., 15991 Redhill Ave., Suite 210, Tustin, Calif., 92780; telephone 714-918-7700; fax 714-918-7727; e-mail info@stay-linked.com; or on the Web at www.stay-linked.com, which includes a short streaming media presentation, "An Introduction to Stay-Linked." Stay-Linked was the Search400.com/TechTarget Products of the Year Winner for 2003 in the PC/Windows Connectivity category.

About eBusiness Solution Pros (eSP)

eSP, the developer of Stay-Linked, has been in business since 1991 and is primarily focused on developing, selling and supporting software technology and professional services solutions for inventory control, warehouse management, manufacturing, distribution and retail application environments on the IBM AS/400-iSeries and other highly reliable host-computing platforms.

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