INTRODUCING VIRCOM'S ACTIVEX TELNET CLIENT FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Tuesday, February 25, 1997 (Montreal, Quebec, Canada) Vircom Inc. today announced the introduction of its ActiveX Telnet client. This innovative product provides an ideal way to immediately bridge the gap between the Web and terminal interface applications, such as BBS'es and legacy mini/mainframe applications. "Although most new development on the Internet is based on the Client/Server model, there is still a huge number of core, revenue generating, applications that work in terminal (ASCII/ANSI) mode. Our ActiveX telnet client gives SysOps a way to seamlessly offer these legacy services to their users coming from the Web using ActiveX compatible browsers." commented Sylvain Durocher, president of Vircom, Inc. The bane of Internet Providers is often to let their clients sign-up, enter their credit information and update their customer information, without human intervention. Since these applications are readily available within the Worldgroup (http://www.gcomm.com) environment, making them accessible on the WWW is greatly eased with Vircom's ActiveX telnet client (http://www.vircom.com/axtelnet.htm). "Client/Server deployment has so far met with varying degrees of success on the Web. Bulky client applications specific to one platform have often encountered strong resistance from the user community. The road to thin client technology is still paved with many months of development. Our ActiveX telnet client immediately provides a way to get there, without any server-side re-engineering." added Richard Lachance, Vircom's general manager. FEATURES Key selling points include: - Telnet to any hosts on the Internet (i.e. not limited to WWW server where client resides) - Security server application allows administrator to define all possible Telnet destinations and can restrict access to destinations to his own local network (including PPP callers) - Security server maintains a list of currently active connections and keeps an ASCII log file that can be parsed to yield usage statistics - Using Microsoft's "Authenticode" (http://www.microsoft.com/intdev/ security/misf8.htm) to guarantee to user that the application is safe to use - Configurable toolbar (like Ms Office's shortcut bar) to execute commands with single mouse click - Through Microsoft's IEAK program (http://www.microsoft.com/ie/ieak/), most Internet packages now available on shelves include the current version of Internet Explorer, supporting ActiveX - Netscape Communicator (browser) version 4 will support the ActiveX technology (http://home.netscape.com/comprod/products/ communicator/faq.html) Other specific features of the ActiveX telnet client will include: - ANSI terminal control codes support (colors, arrow keys, cursor control, etc.) - Scroll back review buffer (supporting "Copy to Windows clipboard") - Configurable window size - Concurrent connections site licensing (with server-side component) - One-time automatic download and installation on user's PC Features planned for in future releases: - Zmodem file transfers - Macro keys definition (ex.: function keys), defined by both administrator and user - Scripting language, defined by both administrator and user - User-specific access rights in Security Server - Capture & scrollback buffer saving to disk - Printing - Extensible hooks so that "advanced terminals" could be built (ex.: IBM 3x70 emulation) - Automatic font installation - Automatic, browser based, window sizing WHY ACTIVEX? In March '96, Microsoft announced the ActiveX technologies (http://www.microsoft.com/corpinfo/press/1996/ Mar96/activxpr.htm) as a tool set to create active content on the World Wide Web. Many other companies (http://www.microsoft.com/activex) have already committed resources to add ActiveX controls to their applications. The technologies have actually been five years in the making; ActiveX is in fact simply an Internet awareness to the OLE controls now widely used in Windows desktop applications. ActiveX offers an ideal way to develop applications to run within a WWW browser, independent of the underlying operating system. In fact, it is the only competition to Java applets and here's why so many Microsoft dollars are going into its promotion: - Extensive font control (ex.: automatic font installation) - Windowing functionality (ex.: resizing) - Input controls (ex.: right-clicking) - Sound - Printing - Integration (OLE style) with other desktop applications - One-time installation as opposed to reloading on every use, as is customary with Java applets AVAILABILITY AND PRICING The current beta version of the ActiveX telnet client can be seen in action on Vircom's WWW site at http://www.vircom.com/axtelnet.htm. A one concurrent connection demo can also be downloaded from that page. The base product includes a 8 concurrent connections license for $250.00 (USD). Clients purchasing the beta version will benefit from a pre- release special which includes a 16 concurrent connections license (instead of 8) and are automatically eligible to all upgrades until the official release version, which would include most, if not all, the above planned features. The number of concurrent connections can be upgraded through the following license extensions: 12 additional concurrent connections $150.00 (USD) 48 additional concurrent connections $500.00 (USD) ABOUT VIRCOM Vircom was incorporated in January 1994, with the mission to develop high quality and leading edge software for the online industry. Since its inception, Vircom has distinguished itself through its commitment to the highest standards of technical support. Its first product, MajorTCP/IP, was first released in April 1994 and has since sold over 1500 licenses. Its other products, all working as Worldgroup modules, include the Distributed MajorBBS Architecture (DMA) client and server, its RADIUS server and its PPP/SLIP server for Worldgroup for Windows NT. VIRCOM CAN BE REACHED AT: Telephone (514) 990-2532 Fax (514) 523-6990 MajorNet sales@GMS Internet sales@vircom.com WWW http://www.vircom.com