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Technology Overview

Collaborator Technology "Quick Facts"

The following information is intended to assist end-users and Network Admins in configuring their environments to best support the use of the Collaborator application. Depending on your particular networking environment, some of this information may or may not pertain to you.

If you wish to review more detailed technical information regarding the technologies used by the Collaborator application, please see our Collaborator Technology Overview.

Collaborator Client Software - General Information

  • The Collaborator Client installs locally on your system via a small, downloadable installer.
  • The Collaborator Client is a small footprint application that results in very little system impact on your machine.
  • The Collaborator Client is self-updating, requiring very little interaction with the end-user when updates are made available.

Collaborator Client Security

  • The Collaborator Client does not open or expose any inbound communications ports that can be accessed by hackers
  • The Collaborator Client does not contain or install any adware or other forms of malware.
  • The Collaborator Client encrypts all communications between the Collaborator servers and the end-user's computer using industry standard cryptographic techniques and algorithms, such as block ciphers and hash functions. Currently, it uses the Blowfish block cipher with 448 bit keys to encrypt communications data, as well as other techniques to enhance and strengthen channel encryption. Blowfish was chosen for the current implementation due to its speed, especially on 32 bit systems, as well as its history of resisting cryptanalysis. Additionally, it offers a public domain license that is not encumbered by patenting restrictions. However, different ciphers may be employed in the future, based on future system requirements. The Blowfish block cipher was invented by Mr. Bruce Schneier. More information on the Blowfish cipher may be found at http://www.schneier.com/blowfish.html.

Collaborator Client Networking Requirements

  • All communication is done by means of outbound connections, so you do not need to open any non-standard ports for inbound access to the Client
  • Currently, all of the outbound TCP/IP ports that the Client may access are in the range 16200-16299. If you restrict outbound TCP/IP access, then you will need to provide outbound TCP/IP access to this port range in order for the Collaborator Client to access our servers.

Collaborator Client Minimum System Requirements

  • The Collaborator Client software should run on any of the following Windows platforms:
    • Windows 2000 (Service Pack 4 or greater REQUIRED)
    • Windows XP (Service Pack 3 or greater recommended)
    • Windows 2003 Server (Service Pack 2 or greater recommended)
    • Vista or Later
  • The Collaborator Client should function on any Pentium class or later machine. Obviously, the faster the better.
  • The Collaborator Client requires relatively little RAM to run. Typically, it uses about 25meg.
  • The initial installation may require up to 15 meg of hard drive space. However, over time, the Client environment may grow to 30 or 50 meg of hard drive space or greater. This is because the Client caches some application elements locally, such as images, in order to make the program run faster and use less network bandwidth.
  • The Collaborator Application is designed for a minimum video resolution of 1024 x 768.
  • The Collaborator Client has no minimum video RAM requirements and should run on any modern video system. However, it does require the use of Windows GDI+ services. However, all of the OS versions listed above include the GDI+ service.