August 30, 2008

Here are a few popular Ethernet downloads from our extensive
Tech Notes Library:

Ethernet Moves Out of the Office - The first in a series of discussions about using Ethernet technology for industrial applications.

Industrial Ethernet Basics - This simple five page paper lays it all out in black and white.

The Ethernet Buzzword Guide - Ethernet has a zillion buzzwords and plenty of strange abbreviations and acronyms. Demystify them with this guide.

Merging Ethernet and Serial Technology - Explains how Serial Servers can allow you to easily connect RS-232/422/485 across a network.

Put Serial Ports on Your LAN

Remotely access anything serial
Much of today’s high-tech equipment ships with a serial port for programming, monitoring or diagnostics. Put those serial ports to work for you with B&B’s Ethernet to Serial Converters, saving you time and trips to the factory floor.

Guide to Ethernet Serial Server operation
Serial RS-232, RS-422 and RS-485 devices are no longer limited to a physical connection to the PC COM port. They can be installed anywhere on the LAN using TCP/IP or UDP/IP communications. This also allows traditional Windows PC software accessibility to serial devices anywhere on your LAN or WAN.

Ethernet to Serial Servers feature three operating modes:
Virtual COM Mode
In Virtual COM mode a driver is installed on the Windows® PC. This creates a virtual connection between the PC and the IP address of the Ethernet to Serial Server over the LAN or WAN. The new COM port shows up in the Windows Device Manager. Windows applications use standard Windows API calls to communicate through this virtual connection with no changes to the software.

After connection, the LAN is transparent to the program and serial device. Applications work just as if the serial device is connected directly to a physical COM port on the PC.

Direct IP Mode
Direct IP connections allow applications using TCP/IP or UDP/IP socket programs to communicate directly with the serial ports on the Ethernet Serial Server. In this type of application the serial server is configured as a TCP or UDP server. The socket program running on the PC establishes a communication connection with the serial server’s IP address. The data is sent directly to and from the serial port on the server. This is the connection scheme that we recommend if you’re writing your own application.

Paired Mode
Paired Mode is also called serial tunneling. In this mode any two serial devices that can communicate with a serial cable can communicate using two Ethernet Serial Servers and a LAN. The serial servers handle the network-side communications automatically. In this mode one serial server is configured as a client and the other as a server and each is programmed with the mating device’s IP address. This mode of operation creates a serial connection between any two serial devices with the only restriction on cable length being the size of your LAN or WAN.