Terminal server? (Kinda.)

[Ken D'Ambrosio]

On Fri, March 4, 2011 2:17 pm, Jerry Feldman wrote:
> Do I read you correctly that you are going to individually wire each
> RS232 port?
> How are these locations going to be connected to the home office. I
> think that RS232 is a max of 50 ft or so. Or are these going to be
> connected to some in-store modem connected to the phone system or possibly
> with an in-store computer connecting to the Internet or to the home office
> via dialup. Back in the early 1970s we put POS (DEC PDP-8M) devices into
> all the Burger King stores with a low cost modem card.

Yes, each cash register will be individually wired; that being said, what
with it being somewhere between hundreds and thousands of miles away, I
was assuming I'd use a wall wart device to act as a VPN endpoint/conduit
to the primary host here in Bedford.

Some Googling gave me an idea that -- to be honest -- sends shivers up and
down my spine, and not in a good way: SLIP.  Windows XP apparently still
supports SLIP (Windows 7 does not), and using that to a remote SLIP
connection, over VPN, should probably work just fine.  Though from what I
remember of my pre-PPP days, SLIP kinda *SUCKED* for configuration. 
Perhaps in the course of 15-odd years, things have improved -- or, just
maybe, I mis-remember how bad it was.

-Ken


>
>
>
> On 03/04/2011 01:55 PM, Ken D'Ambrosio wrote:
>
>> Hey, all.  My company's about to open up several locations across the
>> country.  We're going to have cash registers on-site -- good ol' RS-232
>> connections.  We're also getting software that can talk to these
>> computers.
>>
>> Now, I know RS-232 is fairly robust, but it strikes me that even it
>> might lose signal integrity over 3K miles.  What I'm thinking about (if
>> anyone has better ideas, please talk up!) is something like this:
>>
>> [Register] <- RS-232-to-USB -> [Wall Wart] <- VPN -> [Home office
>> computer]
>>
>> So, as I see it, there are two minor issues:
>>
>>
>> 1) Making the Wall Wart (e.g.,
>> http://www.linuxfordevices.com/c/a/News/100-Linux-wallwart-launches/ )
>> act as a terminal server, and
>>
>> 2) Having some sort of virtual RS-232 adapter on the Windows system
>>
>>
>> Anyone got any suggestions?  Done anything like this?  Etc.
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org>
> Boston Linux and Unix
> PGP key id: 537C5846
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>
>
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