Frequently Asked Questions

RockTerm is a professional terminal emulator for Windows built for network engineers, system administrators, and infrastructure teams. It supports SSH, Telnet, serial console, and raw TCP connections with features including tabbed and split-pane sessions, an encrypted credential vault, SFTP and TFTP file transfers, an expect-style scripting engine, configurable triggers, a button bar, key mapping, network tools, and an optional AI assistant.

It is distributed through the Microsoft Store as a one-time purchase with no subscription. RockTerm is designed, built, and supported entirely in the United States by Rock River Research, LLC.

RockTerm is a one-time purchase through the Microsoft Store. A free trial is available so you can evaluate the full product before buying. There is no subscription, no renewal fees, and no separate enterprise edition. Your purchase includes all updates within the major version you bought (e.g., all 1.x releases). See our Support & Updates Policy for details.

Yes. The license permits both personal and commercial use. There is no separate enterprise edition or per-seat licensing — one purchase covers you.

Currently RockTerm is available for Windows only, distributed through the Microsoft Store. Other platforms may be considered in the future.

RockTerm is made by Rock River Research, LLC, an American software company incorporated in Wyoming. All development and support is handled in the United States.

Connection protocols: SSH (with public key, password, and SSH agent/Pageant authentication, plus agent forwarding and compression), Telnet, serial console (with full baud rate, data bits, parity, stop bits, flow control configuration, and auto-detect), raw TCP, RDP (launches the native Windows client), and local shell.

File transfer protocols: SFTP (dockable browser using the active SSH session), built-in TFTP server, Zmodem, Ymodem, and Xmodem. You can also send ASCII files directly and capture session output to a file.

Yes. RockTerm includes import wizards for SecureCRT sessions, PuTTY sessions, and CSV/TSV files. You can also export your RockTerm sessions to JSON for backup or migration. The session manager supports a folder-based tree structure with drag-and-drop reordering, color-coded tabs by protocol type, and per-session settings for keymaps, highlight rules, and credential profiles.

Yes. RockTerm includes several automation tools:

• Expect engine — SecureCRT-compatible scripting with expect, send, sleep, conditional logic, labels, and embedded Python support with full terminal API bindings.
• Trigger system — Regex pattern matching on terminal output with automatic actions: send text, highlight, beep, log to file, or run an expect script. Supports one-shot triggers, delays, and per-session assignment.
• Button bar — Configurable clickable buttons for one-click commands. Supports Send Text, Send Text + Enter, and Send Password (from the encrypted vault) with custom colors per button.
• Command manager — A dockable tree-based command organizer with folders, filtering, and keyboard shortcuts for frequently used commands.

RockTerm includes a built-in Network Tools panel with utilities that network engineers use daily: subnet calculator, subnet splitter, route summarization, CIDR reference, IPv6 prefix splitter, prefix-list generator, and a log parser for syslog, BGP, and OSPF output. These run entirely locally — no web lookups required.

Yes. RockTerm supports tabbed sessions with color-coded tabs by protocol type, split-pane views, and an MDI canvas mode where terminal windows float freely over a customizable wallpaper background. You can also duplicate sessions, reconnect dropped connections, and lock sessions to prevent accidental input.

Yes. RockTerm supports per-session keymap profiles where you can map any key combination to a custom byte sequence sent to the remote host. A visual keyboard widget highlights mapped keys and lets you click to select and bind. Named keymap profiles are stored in settings and can be assigned per session.

The AI assistant is an opt-in dockable panel that connects to Anthropic Claude or OpenAI using your own API key. Right-click terminal output to send it as context, or use quick prompts like Explain, Fix Error, and Summarize. It can interpret error messages, suggest commands, explain routing tables or log output, and answer technical questions.

The assistant maintains multi-turn chat history that survives session switches and theme changes. Every context block sent to the model is recorded in the chat as a distinct block, so past conversations stay interpretable when you return to them. AI features are entirely opt-in — nothing is sent to any external service unless you explicitly invoke the assistant.

RockTerm supports both Anthropic Claude and OpenAI. You choose the provider, model, and API key in Edit → Preferences → AI Assistant. You bring your own API key — RockTerm sends requests directly from your machine to your chosen provider with no intermediary.

The AI assistant is included in RockTerm at no additional charge from us. However, it requires your own API key from Anthropic or OpenAI, and those providers bill you directly based on your usage. This billing relationship is entirely between you and your chosen provider — Rock River Research does not charge for AI usage, does not process AI billing, and has no visibility into your API spend.

If you don’t use the AI feature, you pay nothing beyond the one-time RockTerm purchase price. For billing questions, spending limits, or refunds related to AI usage, contact your provider directly: Anthropic or OpenAI.

No. RockTerm does not collect telemetry, usage data, or analytics. There is no license server, no cloud account, and no phone-home mechanism. All your data is stored locally on your device by default. The only network connection RockTerm makes is the optional AI assistant, which talks directly to your chosen provider using your own API key — and that feature is off by default.

Note: if you store your RockTerm data directory in a cloud-synced folder (OneDrive, Dropbox, etc.), your data will be uploaded to that provider. That is your choice and responsibility — local-only storage is a core feature of the product. See our Privacy Policy for details.

RockTerm uses an encrypted credential vault with Fernet symmetric encryption and PBKDF2 key derivation from a master password. The master password is never stored on disk. You can create named credential profiles and reuse them across sessions without re-entering passwords. SSH keys can be managed, generated, and converted (PuTTY PPK and PKCS#8 to OpenSSH) through the built-in key manager.

Locally on your machine. Connection profiles, credentials, settings, keymaps, highlight rules, and all other configuration data are stored in a local directory. RockTerm does not sync data to any cloud service. You can export sessions to JSON for backup or transfer to another machine.

Important: If you move or store your RockTerm data directory inside a cloud-synced folder (OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.), your data will be uploaded to that cloud provider. This is your choice — RockTerm's local-only data storage is a core feature of the product, and placing data in a cloud-synced location is a voluntary override of that design. See our Privacy Policy for details.

Yes. RockTerm supports local and remote port forwarding, SOCKS proxy (SSH dynamic tunneling), HTTP CONNECT proxy, ProxyCommand, and jump host (bastion host) connections with separate credentials. A port forwarding wizard walks you through the setup step by step.

Updates are delivered automatically through the Microsoft Store. Your purchase includes all updates — bug fixes, security patches, and new features — for the major version you bought (e.g., all 1.x releases). There are no renewal fees. You can also force a check anytime in the Microsoft Store under Library → Get Updates. See the Support & Updates Policy for full details.

If we ever release a major new version (e.g., RockTerm 2.0), it may be offered as a separate paid upgrade. Any such upgrade would be entirely optional — your existing 1.x license continues to work and receive security patches regardless. We will never disable or revoke a version you already paid for. See the Support & Updates Policy for details.

RockTerm is fully local — no license server, no cloud dependency, no online activation. Even if development stops entirely, your purchased copy continues to work indefinitely. There is no server to go offline and no subscription to lapse. Your data stays on your machine in open formats.

Several options, from fastest to most personal:

• Support articles — step-by-step guides for installation, configuration, and features.
• AI Support Chat — get instant answers from our AI assistant, trained on RockTerm documentation.
• Video tutorials — watch common workflows demonstrated.
• Troubleshooting — solutions for connection problems, display issues, and error messages.
• Email — reach us at support@rockriverresearch.com for anything the self-service resources don’t cover. Email support is included for 12 months from purchase. You’ll hear back from a real person in the United States.

Email support@rockriverresearch.com with details about the issue or your suggestion. Include the RockTerm version number (found in Help → About), what you were doing when the issue occurred, and any error messages you saw. Screenshots are always helpful.