Secure Easy IM™ Server
The Secure Easy IM Server consists of 3 major components:
- Web Server supporting Secure Easy IM administrative and reporting functions.
- Eforward protocol engine.
- Relational Database.
Web Server
The Web Server supports a browser interface enabling users to administer and report on Secure Easy IM activities using commonly available Web browsers, e.g. Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Explorer.
Eforward protocol engine
The Eforward protocol engine implements a sophisticated socket to socket data interchange protocol between the Secure Easy IM Client and the Secure Easy IM Server. The Secure Easy IM Server listens for contact from Secure Easy IM Clients on port 2181.
On contact a new listening process is spawned and the current process will attempt to validate the contact by examining the header which prefaces the contact message. If the header is unable to be processed, i.e. invalid, the session is summarily terminated.
The header includes all the information that was provided to the The Secure Easy IM Client when invoked. This information will include local iBox id (contacting iBox) & password as well as the partner iBox (if appropriate). The Secure Easy IM server will validate the data against its database. An invalid iBox, invalid password or an invalid partnership will cause an error message to be generated and transmitted back to the sending iBox. The session is then terminated.
Note that the protocol enables the Secure Easy IM Client to request a custom process other than Secure Easy IM. The custom process will be executed by the Secure Easy IM Server. In this case the subsequent behavior is determined by the custom process and is not documented here.
Once the session is validated, the Secure Easy IM Client will have indicated whether this is to be a send session, a receive session or an end-to end session. The Secure Easy IM Server responds accordingly. In all cases the connection is of brief duration and ends once the Secure Easy IM Client receives the required response, an error occurs or a timeout occurs.
All sessions employ 'Assured Delivery'. By Assured Delivery, it is meant that successful delivery is acknowledged and recorded by the client and/or server as appropriate. Failed attempts to transmit/receive are also recorded. Additional attempts to transmit to the Secure Easy IM server or receive from the Secure Easy IM server are governed by the Secure Easy IM Client and are determined by switch settings when invoking the Secure Easy IM Client.
Relational Database
The Secure Easy IM Server utilizes a Relational Database to record administrative and operational data. Stored administrative data includes: Subscriber ID's, iBox ID's, passwords, and trading relationships all of which are used to validate sending and receiving requests.
Operational data includes: The messages themselves and their audit trails, traffic statistics (number of sessions and character counts), and call back information (IP addresses and listening ports).