| System Title |
AT&T Laptop Access Software |
| Client |
AT&T |
| Business Goal |
Provide business travelers with an easy way to
connect their laptop computer to a U.S. location while traveling internationally. Although
AT&T Direct® Services provide local numbers in many countries, most users found it
difficult to configure the communications software and operating system and actually
connect. |
| Complications |
AT&T desired this to be easy to use by the
average business executive traveler. It had to handle intercepting and changing modem dial
commands from virtually any application, in Windows 3.x, 9x and NT, and work with
virtually any modem. They also had an aggressive deployment schedule. |
| Our Approach |
We assembled a team of experts in data
communications and Windows internals. We acquired equipment to do telephony testing. The
initial product was focused on 16-bit applications running under Windows 3.x, 95, NT 3.51
and OS/2 that used standard drivers. Once we were able to intercept modem commands, our
programmers worked on solving all of the complications created by the many different
techniques that programs use to verify that the modem is performing properly. We expended
a considerable effort on the user interface - this application is unique. After this
version was deployed, we created a version that handled 32-bit applications in Windows
95/98 and NT 3.51 and 4.0, while retaining the support for Windows 3.x. In doing this we
learned driver development techniques for 9x and NT and more Windows internals.
The software now supports Windows XP and 2000, as well as earlier systems.
We helped
present this software to AT&T sales personnel and customers at trade shows and
meetings. We located a vendor and set up procedures for level one customer care. We
provide level two customer care. This has included working with AT&T and customer
personnel from some of AT&T's most important accounts. |
| Technologies Used |
We used Visual Basic 3.0 for the user interface
due to ease of use and small memory and disk space requirements. C was used for the
drivers and low-level routines. A facility for updating data files was implemented using
Remote Access System (RAS) and the Internet File Transfer Protocol (FTP).
Subsequently, the code base was updated to Visual Basic 4.0, 5.0 and 6.0. |
| User Base |
Over 10,000 copies of this software have been
deployed, many at major corporations. |
| Applicability of
Techniques |
This can be viewed as a project that enables a
customer to work through the complexities of a PC to achieve an objective - making data
connections on the AT&T Network. It also shows that we can make Windows do what we
want it to do. |
| System Description |
The program runs from the
startup group and stays in the background. Then, when the user needs to dial in for
electronic mail or other online services, they are automatically routed to an easy-to-use
dialog box, which asks from what country they are calling. They choose a country and
connection type, add any necessary prefixes, and hit the "Start/Continue
Dialing" button -- from virtually anywhere in the world. |
 (Click the image to see the screen shot in full size.) |
Note |
This software can be downloaded at
no charge from http://www.att.com/business_traveler/.
It was featured in AT&T in-flight commercials, including comments by Dr. Tillinger. |
