12.7 Connect the serial port to a fast network: ser2net
ser2net is a Linux program which will connect a network to the serial port. For example, someone connects to your PC via an ethernet port or fast modem using say telnet. Then (without ser2net) they could remotely login to your PC and then run programs on your PC that utilize a serial port on the PC. However, it might be better if they didn't need to login and use your software, but instead could immediately connect to the serial port. ser2net running on your PC can make this happen.
It could be like a bridge between the ethernet cable and the serial cable. The ethernet cable would have TCP/IP protocol on it but the serial port would just have the raw data taken out of the TCP/IP packets. Optionally, you could use TCP/IP packets on the serial line too. Since an ethernet port has high bandwidth, it could communicate with several serial ports at the same time and also have data flowing elsewhere as well.
To set up ser2net, you must specify which network ports (on the ethernet) will connect to which serial ports. Then when network packets arrive at your PC over ethernet which are addressed to a network port you've tied to a serial port, the data in those packets flows to the serial port. And conversely. Of course the network doesn't have to be ethernet. It could be a cable modem or DSL line, etc.
Next Previous Contents
* License
