OT: Notebooks /w a serial port?

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1

Seems like these are all but extinct, but does anyone know of a
'new' notebook that has a serial port built onto it? I've found some that
have port replicators, but that can be a pain when you need to serial into a
router or some other device. What do you guys use?

-Drew

2

  Seems like these are all but extinct, but does anyone know of a
'new' notebook that has a serial port built onto it? I've found some that
have port replicators, but that can be a pain when you need to serial
into a router or some other device. What do you guys use?

Socketcomm has a PCMCIA serial port card.

Not cheap. If you hear of something else, Please let me know.

LER

3

My new Dell Inspiron 8500 came stock with one.

Todd

4

There are relatively cheap USB-to-serial devices. That's worked
pretty well for me.

5

Seems like these are all but extinct, but does anyone know of a
'new' notebook that has a serial port built onto it? I've found some that
have port replicators, but that can be a pain when you need to serial into a
router or some other device. What do you guys use?

USB serials work. I also remember a vendor laughing me almost out of the room
when I suggested they put in USB console ports. (usb connectors which would
emulate serial, or LAN if they would like to)

Pete

6

Serial ports that plug into USB seem to be fairly cheap

Larry Rosenman wrote:

7

I don't know of any off the top of my head, but you can get a Belkin USB hub
that has a serial port on it.

There's the F5U116 which as 1 Paralell, 4 USB, and 2 Serial ports... Retails
for $90

They used to have a smaller one that you could get that just had 1 serial
port...I don't know how much it cost, however.

Thanks,

Adam Debus
Linux Certified Professional, Linux Certified Administrator #447641
Network Administrator, ReachONE Internet
adam@reachone.com

8

I guess I need to look harder.. (and does FreeBSD 4-STABLE support them? ).

LER

9

I have a powerbook, and I use the USB serial adapter from Keyspan.

Should work great for a PC; it's the only one that will work for OS X that
I know of. While there isn't much in the way of decent terminal emulators
in OS X, there are two other ways to use the keyspan.

For the bsd geeks (like most on this list, I would assume), it creates a
POSIX device in /dev, so you can use your favorite command line and
X-windows apps (for those who haven't switched, apple's support for
X-windows is damn nice).

And for those with Virtual PC, the keyspan adapter can be "shared" with
the emaulated PC, and you can use SecureCRT, "the best terminal emulator
ever".

Andy

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10

My (<1 year old) Dell Inspiron 8100 has a serial port. And I believe the later Inspiron models still have them.

11

I've even had luck with them on on applications that are simply looking to toggle the sense lines to control outside devices.

Bob

Dave Israel wrote:

12

  Seems like these are all but extinct, but does anyone know of a
'new' notebook that has a serial port built onto it? I've found some that

Most of the notebooks I've looked at lately, had standard 9-pin serial
ports on the back - they were mostly Dell's.

Also, the Zaurus'es have a serial port - we're in the process of doing an
eval on a Zaurus with serial cable, ether and/or 802.11 card - should make
for an interesting network troubleshooting tool.

have port replicators, but that can be a pain when you need to serial into a
router or some other device. What do you guys use?

Dell laptop of unrememberable model.

- d.

13

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I have a Dell C400 that has a 9 pin serial.

In the past I have had laptops without serial. Using a USB dongle sucked, in
fact some laptops did not provide enough power on the USB port while on
battery power to make the USB dongle function. Further the USB dongle is yet
another hunk of crap to carry around, and having had to work in cramped
spaces, I found the dongle to be too much to deal with at times. For laptops
without Serial ports, I have used the "Silicom PCMCIA RS-232 serial port
Card" (http://www.silicom.co.il/srs.htm). I still keep one so I have have two
serial ports on my current laptop.

14

And for those with Virtual PC, the keyspan adapter can be "shared" with
the emaulated PC, and you can use SecureCRT, "the best terminal emulator
ever".

Don't forget the OS-X native "Z-Term". Fairly simple, works well:

http://homepage.mac.com/dalverson/zterm/

Charles

15

I guess I need to look harder.. (and does FreeBSD 4-STABLE support them? ).

Sadly, no:

ugen0: Keyspan product 0x010b, rev 1.00/80.01, addr 2

I do recall finding a patch a long time ago that I used on my work laptop.
Why it was never committed, I don't know. It worked well, you just didn't
want to unplug the adapter while an app had the port open.

If you Google, you should find it. Whether it will apply cleanly to
-stable is another question.

Charles

16

Buy a MAC Powerbook. I just purchased a 12" PB as a backup to my 15" TiBook
and for folks around the office to use for field use. With a USB serial
adaptor and Zterm (shareware terminal emulator) it works great.

17

conserver is a great command line solution.

.cshrc:

alias console "sudo /usr/local/etc/conserver.rc start; sleep 2; \
  /usr/local/bin/console -p 1025 -M 127.0.0.1 serial; sudo \
  /usr/local/etc/conserver.rc stop"

I didn't like zterm...

Andy

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Andy Dills 301-682-9972
Xecunet, Inc. www.xecu.net
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Dialup * Webhosting * E-Commerce * High-Speed Access

18

large dells all have serial ports

joelja

19

I forgot to cc nanog, but you can pick up USB to Serial adapters. I just picked up a high speed usb to serial adapter for about $80CDN:

http://www.keyspan.com/products/usb/USA19W/

hth.