Trevance Transaction Gateway FAQ
What is the Trevance® Transaction Gateway?
The Trevance Transaction Gateway combines high-speed, real-time authorizations and high-volume batch processing into one integrated product. Trevance includes a built-in Web server for real-time authorization processing.
How quick is the real-time authorization?
The Trevance CN-4200 processes real-time autorizations at up to 30 transactions per second. This is a sustained throughput rating.
How large a batch can Trevance process?
Batch size is limited by practical communication considerations and will depend on the speed and reliability of the communication with your processor. If you are using a dedicated frame relay, then your reliability will be quite high.
Auric recommends maximum batch sizes of around 200,000 transactions. Auric successfully stress tests Trevance with batches up to one million (1,000,000) transactions.
How is the Trevance built-in web server used?
The Trevance built-in web server allows external applications to quickly perform real-time authorizations using simple HTTP(s) POST operations. This functionality is available from just about every programming language available today.
Do I need to install my own seperate web server for Trevance?
No. Trevance already has a built-in web server that will start running as soon as you turn it on in the configuration. For security, the web server is turned off by default.
Can I talk to the Trevance server from Apache, IIS, Linux, Windows, etc?
Yes. The Web is cross-platform. The Trevance web server neither knows nor cares if a transaction posted to it comes from Windows, Linux, Netware, AS400, etc. As long as you have the ability to perform a web Post operation, you are able to communicate with Trevance.
Do you have sample code for talking to the Trevance web server?
Yes, sample code is included in the Trevance installer.
Why does Trevance support both HTTP and HTTPS communications?
Speed and simplicity.
If you are building a high-volume system where every tenth of a second counts, then the overhead of HTTPS communications can start to add up. HTTPS adds computational overhead as well as network overhead.
HTTPS can also be more complex to set-up. You need to purchase a secure certificate and also give the server where Trevance is installed a fixed domain name since certificates are tied to the name of the machine.
There are several server configurations where HTTP can be perfectly acceptable.
1. Connect the Trevance server and your public server on their own private network that is stored in a physically secured location.
2. Run a Virtual Private Network (VPN) between your public web server and the Trevance server. This builds a secure, encrypted channel between the two machines. HTTP communicating over an encrypted VPN will be quicker than HTTPS. With HTTPS, every request requires the overhead of a 'handshake' between the two machines. With an encrypted VPN, the handshake occurs when the VPN is initially connected.
Can I put Trevance on the Internet and start accepting transactions?
The Trevance Web interface is not designed to be exposed to the Internet. Trevance is designed to sit behind your public web site and provide credit card and check processing.
But I really need to make Trevance generally available for my remote locations.
Two things you can do:
a) build a Virtual Private Network (VPN) between your remote sites and
the central server to ensure secure and encrypted credit card and check
communications.
b) Place Trevance behind a web server (such as Apache) and a
firewall. Use the tools to filter out unwanted access to Trevance.
