Need 8 port RS232 hub to usb

[Lifted]

Looking for recomendations for an ~8 port RS232 hub to connect to servers via USB. I need something rock solid that won't reorder the ports between reboots or power loss. If it plays nice with ESXi that's a plus, but I'll probably end up with Windows or Linux on these boxes.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Never heard of an "RS232 hub". Care to enlighten us?

 

[QuietDad]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...FYSd4AodUmkAnA

 

[ScottMac]

Never heard of an "RS232 hub". Care to enlighten us?

It sounds like he's looking for a terminal server, but they're usually Ethernet-to-serial.
Some of the older ones can do SLIP, so it would be possible to talk via rs232 over IP, between attached units (as long as the device supported SLIP) ... So it could be a serial "hub," though there are usually much better ways to communicate.

 

[Mark R]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...FYSd4AodUmkAnA

Looks like that my be what he needs.

FTDI chipset too, so driver support and stability is about as good as it gets.

Not tried it with ESXi myself, but reports are that FTDI chipset RS232 adaptors seem to work OK on the guests.

 

[VirtualLarry]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...FYSd4AodUmkAnA

Interesting. What are these useful for? Banks of external modems?

 

[drebo]

If I were doing this with ESXi or HyperV guests, I'd use an IP-based terminal server.

 

[drebo]

Interesting. What are these useful for? Banks of external modems?

Lots of reasons. In many industries, serial ports are still used by many devices. Most things are going the way of IP, but there are a lot of industrial machines (think CNC machines, die cutting machines, etc) that still communicate via serial with their control software.

 

[Lifted]

Has anyone used the startech? I've used their single cable adapters before but never their hubs, so I was hoping somebody would have first hand opinions on that or others, and would know of any the gotchas that the newegg/amazon/etc., reviews may have missed.

These are only for console access to remote networking gear and some other IT equipment in the event we can't reach them over IP for whatever reason (human error, botched update, interface gone bad).

 

[drebo]

Honestly, for out-of-band management of networking gear, I'd pick up a used Cyclades TS1000 on Ebay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/CYCLADES-TS1000-16-PORT-TERMINAL-CONSOLE-SERVER-/281128148019

 

[Lifted]

Can I use an RJ45 RS232 cable on any gear that has a regular serial port without messing around with the pinouts for every different piece of equipment?

 

[QuietDad]

RS-232 is RS-232. Pinouts don't change between equipment. The only problem is RJ45 is 9 pin and RS232 is 14 pin. You lose most of the "secondary" assignments, put it all depends on what the equipment needs. As far as any of them, the is really no "chipset" issues. There is no real logic in any of them in that they're pretty much wire to wire.

 

[Engineer]

RS-232 is RS-232. Pinouts don't change between equipment.

What kind of equipment? Quite a few industrial devices communicate using RS-232 signal (signal levels) but, for 'unknown reasons', opt to not use a standard RS-232 layout. Omron industrial devices are one of the worst with their damn pin 9 (DSub 9 pin) as signal common instead of pin 5. I'm sure they do it to sell their expensive custom cables.

 

[Lifted]

It's all telecom, access control, and random old IT equipment. Some of it has software for logging and reporting via RS232, hence the need for a computer, so for those I'll try the RS232 usb hubs.

The RS232 terminal servers should work with most everything else though. I think we can afford to take the plunge for a whopping $100 and order a few used models off ebay to try out as drebo suggested. If anything doesn't play nice w/ RJ45 I'll try it out on the USB RS232 hub.

Thanks for the input everyone.

hmm, using one of these terminal servers at http://www.perle.com/ would software be able to access the devices over Ethernet thinking it's communicating with a com port?

Now I'm not sure which one(s) I'd need with all of these choices. Terminal servers, console servers, device servers, serial to ethernet extenders...

Maybe get 1 of each and see what equipment I can get to work on what.