How to access a remote serial port

It’s no secret that specialized serial port redirector apps and devices may significantly simplify the process of COM port device development and debugging. What’s more, with the help of dedicated software and hardware solutions, ordinary users may remotely access serial port peripherals when they have no possibility to connect the devices to a computer directly.

In this article, we’ll tell you about what solutions allow accessing a remote COM device in the most efficient and secure way.

How to access serial ports over network using dedicated software

Step-by-step instructions on how to access a remote COM port

In order to access remote COM port over the network and use your device connected to this port, you should take several simple steps:

Share your serial device on the ‘server’ PC:

1. First of all, plug the serial device, that you want to share, into your PC;
   
   
2. Then, download Serial to Ethernet Connector and install it on this computer;
   
   
3. Launch the program and Select Connection → New server connection from the main menu;
4. Give a name to your connection;
   
   
5. Specify the COM port to which your device is connected directly;
   
   
6. Specify the TCP port that will be listening for the client connection;
   
   
7. Select the data transmission protocol for your connection;
   
   
8. Finally, click Create.

Once done, the COM port and the device attached to it will be shared over the network and can be accessed from the client PC.

For more information on creating a Server connection with Serial to Ethernet Connector, click here.

Connect to the shared serial device from the client computer:

1. Install Serial to Ethernet Connector on the client PC from which you are going to access the COM device over the network;
   
   
2. Launch the app and select Connection → New client connection from the main menu;
3. Give a name to your client connection;
   
   
4. Select which of the local COM ports will be used for this connection;

   Note: You can check the box Create as virtual port, and the app will create and use a virtual serial port when connecting the remote shared device to your client PC.

   If you selected the virtual COM port option, you should also enable Strict baudrate emulation. It can be found in the Serial port settings;

   

   This will limit the baud rate of the virtual port to the value it is actually opened with and will usually prevent potential data loss.

5. Select which data transmission protocol you will use for the connection.
   
   
6. Enter the hostname or IP address of the server computer you are connecting to and the TCP port you specified when creating your Server connection.
   
   
7. Click Create.

That’s it! Now the device that you have shared on the server machine will be connected to the client computer like it was a locally-attached peripheral.

It is also worth mentioning that the software offers a bunch of additional settings and options for remote serial port access. The app lets you configure Serial port settings, Connection settings, Proxy settings, Security settings, and Signal line settings. To learn more, click here.