COM Port Redirector

Certain serial applications are designed to function properly only when connected to specific COM ports. In most cases, these are the standard COM1/COM2 or COM3/COM4 interfaces. This can pose a problem when your device needs to work with a designated port that is not available on your machine.

A solution to this issue is COM Port Redirector. You can create virtual serial interfaces with a serial port redirector that you can name in whatever manner your application requires.

The virtual port provides the same functionality of a physical interface and receives and sends traffic redirected to and from the real port. Redirecting serial port over a network is one of the primary uses of a COM port redirector. It increases the value of your peripheral devices by making them accessible to any user on the network.

Accessing serial equipment can be challenging after migrating your computing environment to the cloud. Essentially, you need to redirect COM port traffic so it can be accessed remotely through the cloud infrastructure. Serial to Ethernet Connector is a serial port redirector solution that makes it easy to share COM devices in the cloud.

The first step is to identify a server in the cloud infrastructure that has a stable IP address. Set up a connection to this server and install Serial to Ethernet Connector on the machine. Configure the COM port redirector software to enable remote users to access peripheral devices physically attached to the serial interface.

When properly configured, all data traveling through the COM port will be redirected to the cloud where it can be accessed by anyone with an Internet connection to the environment.

Let's imagine that you have a serial printer (or any other specialized COM port device) that is physically connected to a serial port residing on your office Linux computer. This device needs to be accessed from a remote machine located in another room or office. If you have two Linux machines, you should have no problem creating communication with the remote peripheral using the command-line options of Serial to Ethernet Connector (SEC). But did you know that it’s also possible to use the software as a COM port redirector Linux Windows and the other way around? Here’s how you can do this.

Scenario 1. Connecting from a Windows client to a Linux server: On the Windows machine, create a virtual serial port using a COM port redirector. This redirector will transmit serial data over the network to a Linux server. On the Linux side, use socat (or a similar tool) to listen on a specified port and map the inbound data to a virtual TTY device.

Scenario 2. Connecting from a Linux client to a Windows server: Use Socat in the Linux client to create a virtual serial port that transmits data over the network. The receiving Windows machine must have a COM port redirector configured to listen on a specific port and map inbound data to a virtual COM interface.

SerialToIP is a serial port redirector freeware solution that provides the ability to connect to a serial port from a network using TCP socket communication. The tool can be used with either a command-line or graphical interface. The app is a simple implementation of Terminal Server software written in C#. Any TCP/IP network can be used to send and receive data from serial ports, including those of the USB variety.

This COM port redirector is open source and is freely available to be modified to address your specifications. The open source nature of the project means that you get access to the serial port redirector code. The developers have made it point to provide working code that can be easily understood by other technicians with a knowledge of programming serial ports and sockets with C# and .NET. If you are looking for a basic and free serial port redirector, this solution is worth a look.

A virtual serial port can be seen as a form of COM port redirector that operates without dedicated network software support. Creating two virtual COM ports on the same computer enables legacy serial applications to communicate directly without resorting to other methods such as communicating over named pipes.

A virtual serial port redirector should enable the virtual COM ports it creates to emulate the functionality of physical serial interfaces, for instance, to interact with a locally attached peripheral device. Creating the virtual port itself is not a complex task and can be performed by the same type of software that implements physical COM port drivers.

Serial port redirection software enables the user to control data flow by emulating signal lines (DTR / DSR / CTS / RTS / DCD / RI). You can customize the pinout and replicate all serial port parameters such as Baud rate, parity and stops bits to ensure compatibility with all of your serial applications and devices.

Emulating serial ports is extremely useful when faced with a lack of physical COM ports on a computer that needs to connect to a serial device. It can also enable you to establish communication between devices or applications without the need for additional physical connections requiring cabling or hardware.

Any serial program can make use of virtual serial ports to transmit data over a TCP/IP network. A complete client-server infrastructure can be implemented using virtual COM interfaces. The data sharing capabilities and multiple connections of the virtual infrastructure let any member of your organization access legacy serial devices no matter where they are located. Virtual ports can split data streams so that many applications can access the information simultaneously.