Hyper Terminal - A Terminal Emulator - Advanced Features

Users of out dated technology have always found terminal emulators as their only rescue option. Had terminal emulators not existed, all these users would be stranded with no choice but to leave all the data and records behind and migrate on to the newer technology set. Such a migration would definitely bring disastrous results for everyone. As most of the legacy programs (legacy programs are those which are meant for optimal functioning on outdated technology) would be incompatible with the new technology platform, all of the user data, customer records and other indispensible data would be lost. But thankfully, there are terminal emulators in existence. In this article we will discuss in brief, Hyper terminal, a terminal emulator from Microsoft. Hyper terminal has won many industry standard awards for its outstanding reliability and features. Let’s take a look at some of them:

Purpose of Hyper Terminal:

It is a terminal emulator that is used for facilitating communication with older computers. Older generation computer systems, especially those of the likes of character based computer systems are biased from the current technological standards. From today’s advanced computing point of view they are completely incomputable with any existing program. It does means that they cannot be used according to today’s standards but they are still indispensible as a lot of information produced in 80s and 90s is stored on these computer systems. Hyper terminal is one such terminal emulator that allows the user to communicate with them. Telnet sites and BBSs (an acronym for Bulletin Board Systems) have faded away but with the help of hyper terminal a user can still connect to them and retrieve information.

Advanced Features:

Even though the primary function of hyper terminal is to facilitate communication, still it encompasses a many other capabilities. For example it can be used to exchange large files from older computers, much like today’s peer to peer system functioning but since older generation computer do not support peer to peer protocol, hyper terminal can be used to achieve the same effect. Another versatile feature that it supports is the capability to transfer data without the establishing a network. While most of the modern computers would not transfer data on another computer system unless they are connected by a network, with the help of telnet data communication can be achieved without a network by using serial ports.

Data Logging:

Hyper terminal has the capability to record the incoming as well as outgoing data to and from the computer system respectively. While most of the terminal emulators of its class allow for the logging of incoming data only, hyper terminal goes a step ahead and records the outgoing parameters too. This recording feature may not strike out to be very useful to general users but it is an indispensible feature for a technician as with the help of data logging it becomes very easy to troubleshoot the computer system and find out the source of the problem. The emulating window of hyper terminal is scrollable, a feature absent in most of the terminal emulators. This scrollable window allows easy access to older messages and data.

Daniel D is an expert of older generation computer systems. He has written many articles on terminal emulators and has even provided his valuable suggestions for the development of hyper terminal.