19 Nov
2003
19 Nov
'03
4:10 a.m.
On Wed, 2003-11-19 at 08:31, Bob Armstrong wrote:
I want a little gizmo with an RS-232/DB25 on one
side and a RJ45/10baseT
on the other. It should speak TCP/IP, specifically telnet, and convert it
to RS-232. Kind of like a print server, except for telnet/RS232 instead of
lpd/Centronics.
The idea is to use it to put some of my old computers on the network
by plugging it into their console serial ports.
There are enough microprocessors around today with embedded TCP/IP
stacks that such a thing would not be that hard to build, but it
sounds like the kind of thing that somebody else must have already
done.
Can anybody give me any pointers to such a gizmo?
They have been historically called "tip" servers. I don't have pointers
anyone who makes any.
I've been using with some degree of success a product from Digi called
"EtherLite Port server". It has upto 32 serial ports per box (4, 8, 16
are also available). You talk to it via ethernet and a special driver
on your PC (Windoze & Linux are available). The ports on the port
server appear as if they were actual serial ports on your PC. I've
found it much more useful than tip servers (downloading code, etc is
much easier).
They show up on e-bay periodically. I have 2 (32 port) that I paid
about $200 each for on e-bay. YMMV.
Thanks,
Bob Armstrong
--
Guy Sotomayor <ggs(a)shiresoft.com>
ShireSoft