Software: TCPCom

Software converts any serial, RS232, port to a TCP/IP network address and any TCP/IP address to a serial, RS232, port

TCP/Com allows any of the existing serial (RS232) ports on your PC to interface directly to a TCP/IP network. This makes it possible for any other computer on the same network to send and receive serial data through a remote serial port on the PC where TCP/Com is running. You connect to the remote serial port by connecting to a TCP/IP port.

Attach data collection devices - modems, bar code scanners, sensors, gages, meters, RF equipment, telephone PBX systems, laboratory instruments, etc. - to the serial ports of your Windows PC and have that data available anywhere over any TCP/IP based network (i.e. Ethernet, Internet).

For example, you could connect a serial device (bar code reader, electronic balance or electronic measuring instrument) to a COM port on your PC, run TCP/Com and then connect to the device from any other PC on your network through a TCP/IP socket connection. This would allow you to use TCPWedge(TM), Telnet(TM) or any other TCP/IP communications software to read or write to the serial device directly from any PC located on the same network. TCP/Com can also be used to pass serial data across a corporate intranet or over the Internet. See below for a list of typical applications for TCP/Com.

Ease of Use

Just select the serial port and the serial communications parameters for that port and enter an IP address and a socket number. Then activate! It's that easy!

Features

• Supports up to 115Kb serial communications.
• Supports up to 16 com ports simultaneously.
• Supports up to 16 IP addresses as either a client or server.
• NEW! Supports multiple client connections simultaneously when configured as a server.

Typical Applications for TCP/Com

1. Using a network or the Internet as a giant serial cable. Run TCP/Com as a server on one PC in a network and then run a second copy of it as a client on another PC connecting back to the first copy. Any data that goes in the serial port on the server end will go out the serial port on the client PC and vice versa. To make this simple and painless, TCP/Com comes with a two user license so you can legally install it on two PCs for just this purpose.

Note: When TCP/Com is configured as a server, it can accept connections from multiple clients. This allows you to send data from a device connected to the serial port on the server end to more than one client PC.

2. Send or receive data over a TCP/IP port with a serial communications program. Suppose you have a pre-written software package that communicates through a serial port and you want to send or receive data using that program across a TCP/IP port. You can accomplish this using two serial ports on your PC and connecting them to each other with a short Null Modem cable. You would then run TCP/Com on one serial port and your other serial communications program on the other serial port. When your serial communications program transmits data out its serial port, it would immediately go into the second serial port (on the same PC) into TCP/Com which would then send the data out over the TCP/IP port.

3. Emulating a multi port terminal server. A terminal server is a device that connects a serial instrument (balance, bar code scanner, PLC, serial terminal, etc.) to a network and provides an I/O path to the device through a TCP/IP port. TCP/Com performs the same function as a terminal server except it runs on a PC with a network adapter and one or more serial ports. You can configure TCP/Com for up to 16 serial ports at a time and associate each serial port to a different TCP/IP port either as a TCP/IP client or as a server. A hardware terminal server typically costs about $500 and provides only a single serial port. If you had 16 serial devices that you wanted to connect to a network, it would cost around $8000 for 16 terminal servers to do the job. You can purchase a new Windows PC for around $700. A network adapter can be had for under $20 and a 16 port serial adapter can be purchased for around $500. For less than $1500, you can make your own 16 port terminal server using TCP/Com. Because TCP/Com can do its job in the background, you still have a PC that you can use for other tasks. Most terminal servers also only support a single TCP/IP connection at a time therefore TCP/Com has the added advantage that it will allow you to connect multiple clients to a single serial device.

TCP/Com is sold in a two license package so that it can be installed on 2 PCs simultaneously. This is to allow users to attach a serial device to one PC, have TCP/Com transmit the data over a network, i.e. Ethernet or the Internet, to another PC where TCP/Com would make the data available at a serial port.