PotomacSoft Terminal Bridge - Enterprise Version

In a corporation environment, we encourage you to use enterprise version and run your own servers, so that it can be more reliable and with plenty of bandwidth. There are lots of more benefits by using enterprise version simply because the servers sit within your corporation network. Please read below for more details.

WARNING: Using standard version is easy; but setting up Enterprise version is more complicated and may require network and other knowledge. It will also require your own server. If you intend to use Terminal Bridge on only a few machines, you recommend you use the standard version. We will not be able to help in setting up network configurations.

Server Software License

Please read Terminal Bridge server software license. You must read it and accept it before using the server software.

Enterprise Version Benefits

In addition to the benefits of standard version, the enterprise version has following benefits:

Least expensive in the industry.
Allow connection without running Terminal Bridge host program on your host computer when you are connecting from outside of your corporation network (e.g. home) into your corporation machines. This feature is particularly important if you are not sure what machines you will need access in advance, such as in most cases of server support. The host is not required to install any Terminal Bridge related software. The host machine is even not required to be able to access the Internet.
Support large number of concurrent connections per server.
Easily expandable configuration.
Come with an anti-attack filter.
Minimal support effort.
Allow host-server communication to go through Intranet; therefore it will reduce the network traffic goes through your Internet gateway.
It is faster than using shared servers.
Server notifications and alerts in email.
Unlimited deployment within your corporation.
Free of ads if not using shared servers.
Web application for administration and monitoring.
Lifetime free version upgrades.

The Speed - Enterprise Version vs. Standard Version

The following are typical factors which will make enterprise version quicker than standard version

Enterprise version uses servers in your corporation. In most cases, the three machines (client, server and host) are all nearby and thus reduce the distance of data traveled. Standard version uses shared servers, which are far from both of your client and host machine. All the data traveled between your client and host machines will go through the distant servers. Therefore even your client and host machine sits nearby; the data will go long way to reach each other.
Using enterprise version, the traffic between server and host within the corporation network normally goes through your Intranet and normally is much faster than traffic goes though the Internet.
The use of regions will automatically select nearby servers and make the system faster. For example, the users in the west coast will automatically use servers in the west coast and the users in the east coast will use the servers in the east coast.
The shared servers are shared by many users; therefore, it can be slower due to bandwidth limit.
The Internet normally has some bottlenecks which will slow down traffic. The example is that the traffic goes in or out of many countries must go through limited gateway servers.

The Server Components

The Server Application
Using enterprise version, you are required to setup at least an authentication server and a bridge server (they can share a single physical machine). You will install the same server application for authentication server and bridge server. It will depend on your configuration setting in tbridge.properties to make it work as authentication server or bridge server or both. If a machine is shared for both, only one instance of the server application need to be installed. The server application is written in pure java. Detailed instructions of the server application are available in the distribution zip file.

Terminal Bridge Admin Console - Web Application
Terminal Bridge enterprise version also comes with a web application, included in the distribution zip file. You can optionally install the web application using your choice of application servers. It is really useful for the purposes of administrating users, setting up regions and monitoring server and user activities. Without using the admin console, you will have to directly access the database tables for administrating users and setting up regions; and it is difficult to monitor server and user activities without using the web application. Detailed instructions of the web application are available in the distribution zip file.

The Flexibility - Enterprise Version

For enterprise version we build the software specially for your corporation's needs by charging onetime negotiated fee. The following are configurable when we build the software:

The way for the client and host programs to find the servers automatically. There are multiple ways which you can choose.
Whether allow the client and host programs to connect to shared servers or limit the client and host programs to connect to corporation servers only.

The following are flexible when you setup the software:

Extremely easy to add or remove bridge servers.
Run servers on Windows or Unix or mixed.
Use or not use databases. If using database, it can be "Oracle", "MS SQL Server" or "MySQL".
Whether to receive e-mail alerts or notifications. There are difference levels you can configure what kind of e-mails you want to receive.
The server port you want to use.
Whether to use region. If your corporation is geographically located in different regions, you can take advantages of region concept so that users will automatically connect to nearby servers.
There many more you can configure.

Generic User Group

We can license the enterprise version to generic user groups (such as US Computer Users). However, during the fee negotiation process, you must declare it is a generic user group and specify maximum active users you need. Also as specified in server component license agreement, you cannot receive any payment from users as compensation of using the software and your servers unless you have a written agreement from us.

The Enterprise Trial Version

Since some customers would like to tryout the enterprise version before ordering, we specially built a trial version for that purpose. If you are interested in testing the software including the server pieces, please contact support@potomacsoft.com to get the zip file. As using the full enterprise version, you may not need to run the host program or even install Terminal Bridge on the host machine. The current trial version does not have a time limit as soon as you do not break the limitations. Compared with full enterprise version, the trial version has the following limitations:

It allows maximum of only two active users.
It allows maximum of only ten concurrent connections.
You will need to setup registry on the client/host machines in order for the client/host to find the bridge servers.

Warning: The server(s) need to be accessible from the Internet. You will need certain network knowledge to do so. If you cannot make your server(s) accessible from the Internet, you should stick to the standard version.