Personal Communications
| Architecture: | x86, Java |
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IBM Personal Communications, commonly abbreviated to PCOMM, is a 5250, 3270, and Telnet emulator for Windows and formerly OS/2 Warp. A stripped-down version of Personal Communications is also used as the terminal emulator in IBM Client Access. Personal Communications allows for macro recording and playback, database connectivity via ODBC, and file transfers to and from a host. The current version of Personal Communications is 15.0.
In current versions of Personal Communications, only TCP/IP transports are supported. Older versions of Personal Communications supported SNA links, EIA-232 connections, and IBM 5250 and 3270 emulator cards.
Although IBM now makes Personal Communications free to download, the user must have a valid support contract with IBM before they are allowed to download Personal Communications.
Notable Versions
Personal Communications 4.3 is the final version of Personal Communications for OS/2 Warp and 16-bit Windows. It is also the final version of Personal Communication to support hardware EIA-232, coaxial, and twinaxial links, making it an ideal choice to support the AS/400 Model P03 LAN Package.
Personal Communications 5.0 is the oldest version to still run on modern Windows, with caveats noted below.
Personal Communications 5.9 is the first version to properly support Windows Terminal Services.
Personal Communications 12.0 is the final version to support Windows Server 2003.
Quirks of Personal Communications
Personal Communications supports all versions of IBM's various 5250 and 3270 emulation adapters and can operate as a system console, a terminal, a printer, or a data link device. However, this functionality is only supported on OS/2 Warp, 16-bit Windows, and Windows 9x. When running Personal Communications on Windows NT, the TCP/IP transport is the only supported option.
Although Personal Communications 5.0 runs on Windows Vista and later, it is not without its quirks. Notably,
- The InstallShield installer may hang due to issues with the old version of Java that the installer depends on. It may be required to kill JAVAW.EXE from the Task Manager to coax the installer into functioning.
- Personal Communications immediately crashes on startup when run on 32-bit Windows Vista or later.
- On 64-bit Windows Vista and Windows 7, Personal Communications will run without issue but crash on exiting.
- On 64-bit Windows 10 and Windows 11, Personal Communications may hang irrecoverably when performing a long Roll Up or Roll Down operation.
Versions of Personal Communications prior to 5.9 do not function correctly when used in a Windows Server Terminal Services environment. The first user on the server can run Personal Communications without issue. However, each subsequent user who attempts to start Personal Communications will not be able to start Personal Communications until the first user terminates their session.
Version 12's installer has an expired code signing certificate in its installer. Windows 10 and Windows 11 will therefore outright refuse to launch the installer unless the system clock is rolled back to a period where the certificate was valid.
