Question Web based procomm like application, does this exist?

[Red Squirrel]

Looking for something like Procomm to connect to dialup sites, but web based. You HTTP to the box, then pick the site from a list, and it will use the modem to dialup and you have a web console.

Does such a thing exist? We currently remote into a computer and use Procomm but the remote software uses Java and it's very finnicky and only works in IE, and that's when it does work. It often crashes IE or just fails to work altogether. Part of it is due to security policies that they keep pushing/changing so don't know from one day to the next what ends up breaking.

So I'm thinking something that's more javascript/ajax based would work better. I may experiment with coding something using Python but before I dive into that, wonder if there are solutions already that exist, ideally something free and open source.

 

[mxnerd]

Procomm? That's really old stuff.

Googled. New Web Serial API since Chrome 89 probably is what you are looking for.

Read from and write to a serial port | Capabilities | Chrome for Developers

The Web Serial API bridges the web and the physical world by allowing websites to communicate with serial devices.

web.dev

GitHub - rafaelaroca/web-serial-terminal: Fully web based serial terminal using Serial Web API - Access your serial / USB-Serial device directly from the browser!

Fully web based serial terminal using Serial Web API - Access your serial / USB-Serial device directly from the browser! - rafaelaroca/web-serial-terminal

github.com

Web based serial terminal - Google Suche

or

Xterm.js

Terminal front-end component written in JavaScript that works in the browser.

xtermjs.org

? Don't know if it's related.

And some AT commands if needed.

common modem at command reference - Google Suche

 

[Red Squirrel]

I think those are designed to do it client side. Ex: the modem is on the PC you are on, and not remotely. We have a PC in the office hooked up to a modem, so what we need is a way for people to access it from home. Right now we remote into the machine and use Procomm but the way we access it is very finnicky. That and they're slowly trashing the XP and 7 machines (literally, they just send a kill command of sorts and it completely trashes the box) so we've been looking into upgrade path and my train of thought is to just have a web front end that acts as a serial console and it uses the remote modem.

If nothing exists then I'll look at coding something but figured I'd check first.

 

[mxnerd]

Apparently the Web Serail API is for accessing local serial hardwares.

This is what I envisioned. If you can use RDP or other remote control software to remote in the remote machine that has the modem connected, then you should be able to use the Chrome/Edge/Opera 89+ browsers on that machine and the open source code to access the modem and dial up to another site.

Or what you were talking about was end users using their own modem at home and use Procomm running in IE with Java plugiin to dial into that machibe? It would be possible using ActiveX but never seen anything like that. In that case, the open source code on the internet should also work after some modification.

What exactly is the name of the software and why does it have to run in IE & Java? And why does user have to use Procomm? I really can't comprehend their relationship. A simple diagram might help.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Basically want a web front end to use the modem that is in the office. So you http to it from home, select an entry from the list, and dial, and it uses the modem that's at work. Right now we're remoting into the PC using Remotely Anywhere (which uses some form of Java that is hit and miss and IE only and crashes a lot) and using procomm, and our plan is to just try to see if we can get that to work in a VM or something but I'm just exploring other options. We also have another dialup program called Xtalk. The only real reason we use it is because there's like 300 entries in it so someone would have to sit and input them all into procomm and that's just never been done.

But before we do anything like this, I may look into a web solution first. If nothing like that exists then I'll see what it takes to code something but I feel this is something that probably does exist just not sure what it would be called.

 

[mxnerd]

Got it. So the Web Serial API (https://wicg.github.io/serial/) should work. You just create a URL like procomm.yourcompany.com and when end users visit the site and they get the webpage that connects to modem. You will need an HTTPS server running on that machine. You also do need to do some coding.

Don't really know if there are existing solutions. If there is, I bet it won't be free.

Regarding data entry, I'll try some automation software like AutoHotKey or AutoIt, or Power Automate (acquired last year by MS, free download, will send data to MS though, probably not what you want).

 

[Red Squirrel]

Oh ok, yeah will check that out then. Figured I'd check before I start coding something myself.

 

[mxnerd]

Guess you need to use nodejs as the webserver so you can do the binding

serialport-binding-webserialapi

Web Serial API binding for Node Serialport. Latest version: 1.0.3, last published: 3 years ago. Start using serialport-binding-webserialapi in your project by running `npm i serialport-binding-webserialapi`. There are no other projects in the npm registry using serialport-binding-webserialapi.

www.npmjs.com

 

[mxnerd]

Well, think I was wrong. It's for conneting to local devices.

Wondering if there is another way...

 

[Red Squirrel]

My train of thought is to just write a python program that also listens to a port and acts as a web server, and just relays the info to the modem. Basically a self contained web server, I believe python has libraries for that so I should be able to do it without actually implementing my own HTTP stack.

I will play around with it locally first, at work I have a modem on my PC as well. Once I can figure out how to send AT commands via python and essentially write my own basic terminal program, I just need to extend that so it can work through a web page.

At some point I also want to automate some of that and parse out info.

Another project that will stem from this is we used to have a monitoring app that showed all the battery voltages of our buildings and then they changed it to one where we have to dial manually to each one. When we have 100+ sites down during a big storm that is very tedious. So what I'll do is have a script that just goes through a list then posts the voltages on a web page.

So yeah at this point I'll probably just code something.

 

[mxnerd]

Yeah, Python is a good choice. It can act as a websever and has the ability to access serial port.

Welcome to pySerial’s documentation — pySerial 3.0 documentation