RS232 to TCP/IP Converter
NEW Version 6.0 - Now with support for Virtual COM ports and UDP!
Can also be loaded as a Service in Windows NT4, 2000, 2003, XP and Vista!

TCP-Com is a software based RS232 to TCP/IP converter. TCP-Com allows any of the RS232 serial ports on your PC to interface directly to a TCP/IP network. For example, you can use TCP-Com to turn a PC into a “Serial Device Server” so that you can connect any RS232 serial device directly to a TCP/IP network and communicate with that device from any other workstation in the same network or across the Internet.

TCP-Com can also create “Virtual” RS232 serial ports that are actually connections to a TCP/IP port. This allows you to use existing Windows based serial communications software to send and receive data across a TCP/IP network.

Attach data collection devices - modems, bar code scanners, sensors, gages, meters, RF equipment, telephone PBX systems, laboratory instruments, etc. - to the serial ports of your Windows PC and have that data available anywhere over any TCP/IP based network (ethernet, Internet).

For example, you could connect a serial device (bar code reader, electronic balance or electronic measuring instrument) to a COM port on your PC, run TCP-Com and then connect to the device from any other PC on your network through a TCP/IP socket connection. This would allow you to use TCP-Wedge, Telnet or any other TCP/IP communications software to read or write to the serial device directly from any PC located on the same network. TCP-Com can also be used to pass serial data across a corporate intranet or over the Internet. See below for a list of typical applications for TCP-Com.

Ease of Use

Just select the serial port and the serial communications parameters and enter an IP address and a socket number. Then activate! It's that easy!

Taltech support was incredibly fast to respond to my questions and went way beyond my expectations, ultimately solving my problem when I was really in a pinch! - Bill Cumley, San Diego Computer Consultants

FREE Demo Software

Test TCP-Com for yourself:
Download our FREE 30-day evaluation version of TCP-Com version 6.0
This is a full working version to let you test the power and ease of this software at no risk.
Note: This version will run under Windows 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, 2003 and Vista.

Features

• Supports up to 115Kb serial communications.
• Supports up to 256 com ports simultaneously.
• Supports up to 256 TCP/IP connections as either a client or server.
• Supports multiple client connections when configured as a TCP/IP server.
• NEW! - Supports the ability to create Virtual COM ports that are actually TCP/IP port connections.
• NEW! - Supports advanced error recovery features that automatically repair broken TCP/IP connections.
• NEW! - Install TCP-Com as a Windows service. (This feature is not available in Windows 98 or ME).

Typical Applications for TCP-Com

TCP-Com is an extremely simple program however it is also extremely powerful and can be used to solve a wide variety of device interfacing and RS232 or TCP/IP communications problems including the following:

1. Turn a PC into a multi port serial device server.
A Serial Device Server (also sometimes called a “terminal server”) is a hardware device that connects a serial instrument (balance, bar code scanner, PLC, serial terminal, etc.) to a network and provides an I/O path to the device through a TCP/IP port. TCP-Com performs the same function as a serial device server except it is a software program that runs on a Windows PC and uses the serial ports installed in that PC and the PC’s network connection.
You can configure TCP-Com to open up to 99 serial ports at a time and associate each serial port to a different TCP/IP port either as a TCP/IP client or as a server. A hardware based serial device server typically costs about $150 and provides only a single serial port. If you had 16 serial devices that you wanted to connect to a network, it would cost around $2400 for 16 serial device servers to do the job. You can purchase a new Windows PC with a built in network adapter for under $500. A 16 port serial adapter can also be purchased for around $500. For less than $1300, you can make your own 16-port serial device server using TCP-Com. Because TCP-Com can do its job in the background, you still have a PC that you can use for other tasks. Most serial device servers also only support a single TCP/IP connection at a time therefore TCP-Com has the added advantage that it will allow you to connect multiple clients to a single serial device. TCP-Com also has many advanced error recovery options that allow it to automatically recover from broken network connections making it much more fault-tolerant than most serial device servers on the market.

2. Send or receive data over a TCP/IP port with any serial communications program.
Suppose you have a pre-written software package that communicates through a serial port and you want to send or receive data using that program across a TCP/IP port (perhaps to communicate with a device connected to a serial device server or another copy of TCP-Com running as a serial device server on another workstation). You can accomplish this by configuring TCP-Com to create a Virtual COM port instead of opening a real (physical hardware based) serial port on your PC. After you activate TCP-Com, it will create a virtual COM port on your PC that any other serial communications program will be able to open as if it were a locally installed COM port. When you send data out the COM port from your existing serial communications program, the data actually goes out the TCP/IP port and when you receive data from the TCP/IP port, your serial communications software receives the data as if it came in on a local COM port.

3. Open COM ports located on another computer in your network as if they were locally installed COM ports.
Suppose that you have a serial device connected to a COM port on a PC in your network and you wanted to communicate with that device using a serial communications program running in a different PC than the one where the device is connected. You could accomplish this by running TCP-Com on the workstation where the device is connected and configuring it to run as a TCP/IP server opening the COM port that the device is connected to. You could then run a second copy of TCP-Com on a different PC in the network and configure it to create a Virtual COM port and connect as a TCP/IP client to the copy of TCP-Com running as the server in the PC where the device is connected. You could then use your serial communications program to open the Virtual COM port created by TCP-Com and when you do so, you would actually be communicating across your network directly with the device connected to the COM port on the other PC.

4. Use your network or the Internet as a giant serial cable.
Run TCP-Com as a TCP/IP server on one PC in a network and have it open an existing COM port on that PC. Then run a second copy of TCP-Com as a TCP/IP client on another PC connecting back to the first copy running in the first PC also having it open an existing COM port. Any data that goes in the serial port on the server PC will go out the serial port on the client PC and vice versa. Note: When TCP-Com is configured as a server, it can accept connections from multiple clients. This allows you to send data from a device connected to the serial port on the server side to more than one client PC.

5. Use TCP-Com to feed data from one physical RS232 port to multiple RS232 serial communications programs.
Normally Windows will not allow two serial communications programs to open the same serial port at the same time however it is possible to use TCP-Com to feed data from a physical RS232 serial port to multiple “Virtual” serial ports so that more than one application program can input data from a single RS232 serial port.
To accomplish the above, configure one instance of TCP-Com to open a physical serial port (COM1) on your PC and acting as a TCP/IP server using any port number that you like. Next, open a second instance of TCP-Com (select New from the TCP-Com File menu) and configure it to create a virtual COM port (COM2) and have it connect as a TCP/IP client to the TCP/IP port that the first (server) instance has been configured to use. Finally, open a third instance of TCP-Com and configure it to create another virtual COM port (COM3) and have it also connect as a TCP/IP client to the TCP/IP port that the first (server) instance has been configured to use. After you activate all three instances of TCP-Com, your computer will behave as if it had two additional COM ports COM2 and COM3. At this point, you can run two serial communications programs – one on COM2 and the second on COM3 and both will be able to send and receive data in or out COM1. The arrangement described above will work for as many virtual COM ports that you wish to create so you can connect up to 98 separate serial communications programs to the same physical serial port.

6. Use TCP-Com to map a TCP/IP port to a different TCP/IP port.
Configure one instance of TCP-Com to create a virtual COM port connecting to a TCP/IP port. Then, configure a second instance of TCP-Com to open the virtual COM port created by the previous instance of TCP-Com and connect it to a different TCP/IP port. Any data that goes in either TCP/IP port will go out the other TCP/IP port and vice versa.


Actual User Applications:

1) Using TCP-Com as a multi-port terminal server collecting data from multiple sites over wireless Internet connections and CDPD modems.
2) Using TCP-Com to communicate to the Trafmate 6 (RS-232 based remote traffic monitoring device) over wireless Internet.

Concerned about security? While TCP-Com does not have any built in security features it is easy and cheap to obtain a Personal Firewall which allow you to restrict TCP/IP Connections and addresses.

History

TAL Technologies specializes in serial communications software with its market-leading serial data acquisition software product, WinWedge. TAL also released TCP-Wedge that is designed for TCP/IP, ethernet or Internet based data acquisition. With the combination of these two products TAL received many requests for a software product that would make RS232 serial data available across a TCP/IP network and TCP/IP data available through RS232 serial ports. This is exactly the job that TCP-Com is designed to perform.

TCP-Com is sold with a two user license so that it can be installed on 2 PCs simultaneously. This is to allow you to attach a serial device to one PC, have TCP-Com transmit the data across your network (ethernet or Internet), to a second PC where another instance of TCP-Com would make the data available at either a physical serial port or to a virtual serial port.

TAL also offers a 90-day money back guarantee as well as free and unlimited support for all its software products.