Isolated pos terminal connectivity

A method of providing two-way communication between an isolated point-of-sale (POS) system and a website, the method comprising:

• operating the POS system as an air gap system;
• detecting a trigger event to initiate the two-way communication operations selected from among installation, diagnostic and repair services;
• generating encoded POS system information for transmission to the website through the internet;
• communicating the encoded POS system information to a portable communication device using at least one of optical or near-field communication;
• transmitting, at the portable communication device, the encoded POS system information to the website;
• receiving, at e portable communication device, response information in response to the POS system;
• and
• communicating at least some of the response information to the POS system for further operations by the POS system based thereon.