SEH Technology had previously adjusted the software tool from version 3.4.1 to the modern Apple operating system macOS 12 (Monterey) and Apple's current processor generations (Apple Silicon). The software now supports Apple processors of the M1 series. In addition, the administration of all dongle and USB device servers from the SEH product portfolio and access to the USB dongles and devices connected to them is possible without restrictions. With this release, SEH Technology is the only manufacturer of USB device servers to offer compatibility with the current Apple operating system and its M1 architecture.

With the introduction of the Monterey 12.x operating system, important classes and frameworks were no longer accessible at the end of 2020, meaning the previous UTN Manager could not be compiled there. As a result, no support for macOS 12 - neither based on Intel nor on Apple M1 processor technology - could be offered for the dongle and USB device servers.

"The demand from our customers for a corresponding adjustment of our management tool was a really big challenge for us," said Jörg Hecke, Product Marketing Manager at SEH. "Apple had increasingly restricted the use of such kernel extensions in 2019 and declared them de facto obsolete since the release of macOS Monterey. Regular use was therefore no longer possible on the lower levels at which developers operate."

Successful evaluation phase for users and availability

In a comprehensive evaluation round with customers and users over the past few weeks, interested parties were able to get a first impression of the performance and convenience of the new management tool.

Hecke explains, "We invited Apple users who use our USB device and dongle servers to contact us to evaluate the new version of the UTN Manager. We would like to express our sincerest thanks to everyone involved for this commitment and the time invested. After extensive tests and trial runs, all SEH Technology customers can now download the new version 3.4.3. of the UTN Manager free of charge from the SEH website.

Enhancing SEH UTN Manager

The UTN Manager is the control system and software tool for USB and dongle servers. The tool is used to establish and manage the connections to the connected USB devices. All device servers in the network are automatically found and included in a device list. As soon as one of the USB device servers is on the list, all USB devices connected to it are visible and can be managed. After clicking on a USB device icon and subsequent activation, the device is connected to the client just as if it were connected locally via USB. The software is installed on all clients that are to access a dongle or USB server provided in the network.

Functional range of the UTN Manager

Version 3.4.3 is a completely newly developed version of the SEH UTN Manager for the macOS environment. Version 3.3.5 of the SEH UTN Manager, which is still available, supports the operating systems Windows 10, 11, Server 2012 R2, Server 2019, Server 2022, Linux (Ubuntu/Debian, RHEL, SLES, openSUSE LEAP, Oracle, CentOS, CentOS Stream) and macOS (10.15 Catalina, 11 Big Sur). With the now available UTN Manager version 3.4.3, SEH explicitly and exclusively supports the current operating macOS 12 (Monterey) system or higher - as well as the still common Intel-based and the upcoming Apple M1 "ARM"-based SoC (silicon on chip) architecture. SEH's UTN Manager will therefore work natively on both architectures; one installer is designed as a universal binary, which makes the Rosetta 2 emulation provided by Apple unnecessary.