Any machine that runs one of the above operating systems should be
able to support the
Redirector without any difficulty.
Windows/7 64 bit does not work acceptably
Windows/7 is NOT RECOMMENDED at this time.
The Visual Basic 6 runtime support is needed, and the
installer will check you have it
installed. If required you download the runtime free from Microsoft
here.
The Haxxio UDP Serial Port Redirector
THIS PRODUCT IS NO LOGER AVAILABLE
The Haxxio UDP Serial Port Redirector is the missing link between devices
that speak UDP on your network and are thus "connected" to your PC, via
an Ethernet port (specifically UDP over IP) and Windows applications on the
PC that can only talk to a serial port. Most applications for the Redirector are
based on one of:
Replacing a simple serial connection, either RS232 or RS485, with a network
connection, thus simplifying the connection and removing the cable length
barrier, up to the point of crossing the planet.
Examples
Requiring to communicate RS232 over a wireless connection between either PCs,
or PCs and terminal servers - Wireless ethernet is much cheaper and more
available than wireless RS232.
Examples
Enabling a group of PCs and/or other devices to all communicate with each
other. This can be arranged by having all the devices broadcast their
messages, and by using the UDP Redirector on on one or more PCs, these
PCs can also be part of this communicating group.
Examples
Whats New About the Haxxio UDP Serial Redirector?
The Haxxio Serial Port Redirector uses UDP to communicate between itself
and either other instances of itself on other PCs, or hardware devices. Almost
all other network serial port redirector devices available use TCP. Both UDP and
TCP are members of the IP protocol set, which is often generically referred to as
TCP/IP.
The Haxxio UDP Serial Redirector is also the lowest cost product of its type
that we know about, making deployment possible in situations where prieviously
RS232 over a network connection would have been prohibitively expensive.
The product manual is online in easy to browse format, take some time to
look at the Redirector, check out the examples, and see what the Redirector
can do for you.
What else do I need?
Pros and Cons UDP versus TCP Connectivity
UDP
TCP
Using UDP broadcasts a group of devices on a single network
(or more accurately, within a single broadcast domain) may
communicate with each other on a one-to-many, many-to-one or
many-to-many basis.
Only a single pair of devices may communicate.
UDP is connectionless, and thus doesnt require any specific
steps to initiate conectivity, configured devices simply communicate
TCP is connection based and thus one or other ends of the connection
must take responsibility for setting up the connection, maintaining it,
and re-establishing it should it fail. The other end must be willing
to accept reconnections.
UDP is not a guaranteed delivery protocol. It is possible (though
in modern network practice this happens rarely, if at all) for data
not to be delivered to the target application. If the applications
use checksums or other sanity checks they should detect missed data.
Alternatively, if the data is transient in nature, a single missed
data item may not be an issue.
TCP is guaranteed delivery. This means that whilst the connection
between the endpoints is "alive" then data send from one
endpoint will come out at the other. If data is lost in transit then
TCP will retransmit the data without the application being aware anything
went wrong. If a circumstance arises such that TCP cannot deliver on its
promises, it will sever the connection.
Is the Redirector Right for My Application
If you have a single device communicating with a single PC, then the connectionless
advantages of UDP may or may not benefit you. You may be better served using a TCP based
product. A TCP based product will set up a fixed connection between the two
communication endpoints.
Sorry, we have no plans to support platforms other than Windows.
Tactical Software (mentioned above) now have a Linux product
offering called
TTYredirector.
This tool is an out-of-the-box solution, with
the same sorts of features as the Windows product, such as packaged
install, commercial support, RFC2217 port control etc.
Unix users may also wish to look at TTYD, produced by Joe Croft at
http://www.linuxlots.com
which is highly spoken of, and is available under the GPL.
