Today's release of LapLink FTP, an Internet variant of the popular LapLink file transfer and remote access product, was seeded a year ago, when LapLink's creator, Mark Eppley, tried to put pictures and music files from his annual Spam Jam bash online. The Spam Jam is the latest iteration of a 12-year-old mini music festival that Eppley organizes.
"After Spam Jam '98, we said 'Oh, we'll put the photos up and do the Web site, etc., and it'll be no big deal.' About half the people who come are technical, so I figured we'd figure it out," Eppley said. Instead, "you'd send JPEGs through e-mail and half the time the attachments wouldn't come through. So I'd say, 'OK, FTP it to me.' And you'd get blank stares, even from the tech people."
"It was a mess."
So the free-spirited Eppley came out of semi-retirement from his gig as chairman and CEO at Traveling Software Inc., the company he founded in 1982, to put together an Internet strategy that would make it easier for friends to get some of the music that played at the Jam.
Easier downloads
LapLink FTP is strictly focused on Internet file transfer, without the PC-to-PC file transfer capabilities and remote access features of its personal computing cousin. Eppley wanted the product to make it easier for Web users to find sites and download items, be it driver updates or MP3 files.
LapLink.com has effectively been converted into a file transfer portal, what Eppley calls a "vortal," or vertical portal. So users who go to LapLink.com and download the product get connected to the Web more easily and should find file transferring more intuitive than with the numerous competing FTP products.
While there are plenty of other FTP download products, including Ipswitch Inc.'s popular WS_FTP program, one analyst briefed on the product says LapLink has a couple of things going for it.
"The two key things with Traveling Software are that they tout file transfer, and the ease of use," said Stephen Drake, an analyst at International Data Corp. in Framingham, Mass. It doesn't hurt that Traveling Software can leverage the LapLink name. Some 20 million people worldwide use LapLink products.
Ads part of the blend
Perhaps more importantly for the company, Drake said: "It lets [Traveling] say, 'Hey, we're an Internet company as well.' "
Of course, even Internet companies must produce revenue, and LapLink.com is being given away. Eppley notes that Traveling Software now has ads from outside companies on its Web site. He also promises that "We're coming into this space with a vengeance," and said the company will add new features and for-pay products on the site.
"Certainly there will be some stuff that will be perhaps purchased in a traditional sense. It's a blended model, and the Net allows you to do that," Eppley said.
The product can be downloaded for no charge at
LapLink.com. Users who want it for more than 30 days must register on the site. Eppley promised that Traveling Software would not breach trusts with users who registered.
Oh, and for those who attended Spam Jam '99 last weekend, Eppley says MP3 files of some of the sets are now available through the LapLink FTP portal.
