November 19, 2007 12:00 PM PST
At the time Symphony was developed, the Internet was still in its infancy and not widely accessible. However, lots of online services existed--you just had to have a modem and a communications application to connect directly to the service's server.
Since Symphony was positioned as a business tool, being able to access online banking services or online stock information was a necessary feature. Symphony's "Comm" was the modem communication program that allowed you to connect to pre-Internet online services.
"Comm" also allowed you to use a Null Modem cable to create a two-computer peer-to-peer network.
Photo by CNET Networks