Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for passing control of message dependencies and ordering to one or more network nodes participating in a transaction. Thus, messages can be sent to the participating nodes and the participating nodes can handle the messages according to their respective dependencies without first sending a response or waiting for the next message to arrive. In one embodiment, at least one message is flagged with a checkpoint to indicate that messages sent before the checkpoint are to be handled by the participating nodes before messages after the checkpoint. Messages may also be flagged with error-handling information. For example, a message may be marked to indicate that if the message fails, no further messages are to be sent to the node had the failure. Responses to a group of messages can be collected in a single operation.

Abstract: A system and method to enable the secure transfer of information between nodes in a workgroup over a public network by facilitating the creation of a virtual private network (VPN). The system preferably includes at least a pair of nodes and a VPN server. The system preferably is centrally managed such that when an attribute relating to a node or server is revised, the configuration information related to that attributed is updated at each node within the VPN. The system further preferably includes a datastore linked to the server and a client application located at each node.