23 Aug
2011
23 Aug
'11
4:02 p.m.
On 23/08/2011 20:37, Tony Duell wrote:
Sure. Every one of my team has a personal-issue USB-to-RS232/DE9 serial
adapter, because they're so useful, and I keep two or three in strategic
places in the machine rooms as well (so the systems guys don't keep
trying to steal^X borrow ours).
A few of our more recent laptop purchases were chosen on the specific
basis that they have RS232 serial ports. Never mind the latest CPU and
gigabytes of RAM, if it runs Kermit and/or supports PuTTY in serial line
mode, it's good.
Why? Because as quite a lot of people reading this are already aware,
modern network switches from almost every major vendor (Cisco, HP,
Juniper, Extreme, etc) as well as most proper servers and many disk
shelves have RS232 console ports (or LOM[1] ports), which is how you
initially configure them, even if the ports are sometimes RJ45-style
jacks rather than DE9s.
[1] Lights-Out Management
Hahaha.
Exactly. and that any off-topic BS always takes precedence over
real technical problems. Of course. :)
How is a discussion of the RS232 intreface and tools/equipment to get it
working off-topic? Like it or not, the RS232 interface is commonly
available on classic computers, meeting vairous 'standards' :-). there
are laos, I beilve RS232 interfacesa for more modern machines (I am sure
I've seen USB-RS232 cables). Linijng classic computers toghetr, or
linking them to modern machiens for the purposes of data transfer (either
archiving that whihc is on the calssic machine, or transfering software
from the web (say) orto the classic mahcine) would appeer to be 100% _on_
topic.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York