[ale] USB to Serial adapters

[smeadspam]

We port our software to several Unices, Windows, MVS, VMS, and what not. 
The Serial port is often a lowest common denomiator for us. We use a lot 
of Octal USB to Serial Converts for "poor-mans" terminal server.  I've 
even gotten Windows with SFU onto a serial port (good for network fault 
tolerant testing).

K


Jeff Lightner wrote:
> Back when I first started on UNIX nearly everything was serial so people
> used dedicated ports boards (DigiBoard, Stallion, Computone etc...) for
> terminals, printers, modems etc...   I also saw a lot of system
> interfaces that required serial connections.
>
> I'm just curious what people are doing these days that requires multiple
> serial ports.  For most of what I've been doing for the 10 years or so
> the only real use for serial was console and modems and even that isn't
> extensive due to KVMs and the like.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org] On Behalf Of
> Daniel Kahn Gillmor
> Sent: Wednesday, June 18, 2008 11:57 AM
> To: ale at ale.org
> Subject: Re: [ale] USB to Serial adapters
>
> On Wed 2008-06-18 10:13:20 -0400, Ken Cochran wrote:
>
>   
>> Any recommendations (maybe a FAQ/site/info) for *supported*
>> and/or recommended USB-to-serial adapters for Linux/BSD/MacOSX?
>>     
>
> the Prolific chipset ("pl2303") is far and away the most stable one of
> these i've ever used.  It works well on Linux.  i've never tried it on
> *BSD or OSX, but a google search looks promising [0] [1].
>
> If you're setting up a rig with a lot of serial ports, my notes for
> doing that [2] include an 8-port USB pl2303-based adapter (which i've
> never used, but i'd love to hear any experiences with it).
>
> When i was writing up my notes on setting up an all-solid-state mini
> machine [3], i found a pl2303 adapter for about $18 [4].
>
> It's often difficult to find a vendor who publishes what chipset
> you'll get in their devices, which is pretty aggravating.  However, it
> doesn't hurt to ask, either.
>
> hth,
>
>         --dkg
>
> [0] http://leaf.dragonflybsd.org/cgi/web-man?command=uplcom&section=4
> [1]
> http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/drivers/pl2303usbtoserialdriver.ht
> ml
> [2] http://cmrg.fifthhorseman.net/wiki/cereal#hardware
> [3] http://cmrg.fifthhorseman.net/wiki/embedded/alix/purchasing
> [4] http://www.beaglesoft.com/232usb.htm
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