SocketTools Secure Visual Edition is a collection of controls that supports secure data connections over the Internet or a local network. It includes client interfaces for Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) compliant versions of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTPS), File Transfer Protocol (FTPS), Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTPS) and other popular application protocols PLUS all the standard Visual Edition components. Almost all details of the standard SSL protocol are hidden within the controls, enabling developers to produce secure client applications with only small additional considerations beyond those needed for non-secure versions of those same applications. All versions of Visual Basic from 5.0 and later are supported, and the ActiveX controls can be used with any 32-bit development tool that supports COM and the ActiveX control specification. Of the twenty controls in the product, six provide client interfaces for secure versions of these major application protocols: File Transfer Protocol (FTPS) * Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTPS) * Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTPS) * Post Office Protocol (POP3S) * Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTPS) * Telnet/TelnetS * Gopher * Image Viewer * MIME * Ping * RCMD * DNS * RAS * SocketWrench/Winsock * Terminal Emulator * Finger * Audio Player * Time * Whois All of the controls share many common attributes. The network controls support both synchronous (blocking) and asynchronous modes of operation, and also include the ability to log the Windows Sockets function calls for debugging purposes. All of the controls are thread-safe and can be used in multithreaded containers, such as Internet Explorer. With the exception of the visually oriented controls (image viewer and terminal emulation controls), they can also be used as simple Automation objects, without requiring that they be placed on a form or inside another container.