Moxa Technologies DE-303, DE-308 manual Knowing Your Application, Single-Host Mode

Knowing Your Application

NPortServerProisanadvancedIndustrialSerialDeviceServerdesignedtofitintotoday'sever- expandingnetworkingworld.ItextendstheusageoftraditionalCOMportsonaPC—anisolated machinewithrestrictedports—tobeingabletoaccesstheportsoveraTCP/IPnetwork.Throughthe natureofnetworking,youareabletocontrolyourserialdevicesfromadistance,eitheroveraLAN, orevenovertheInternet.

SinceNPortServerProisconnectedthroughaTCP/IPnetwork,youwillneedtoknowsomebasic factsaboutnetworkinginordertogettheserverhookedupcorrectly.Inthenextsectionwediscuss the Single-HostMode.

Single-Host Mode

TraditionalserialportcommunicationusesaCOMportboardthatslidesintooneoftheslotsonthe backofyourPC.Inthiscase,onlythecomputercontainingtheboardcanaccesstheserialport.With Moxa’s8/16-portNPortServerProserialdeviceserver,communicatingwithCOMportsismuch moreversatile,sinceyouarenowabletoaccesstheCOMportsfromadistance.Forexample,the servercouldbelocatedinStockholm,andtheserialdevicesinFrankfurt.

Figure 2-1. Traditional Multi-Port Serial Communication

Ifyouusethetypeofapplicationdescribedinthepreviousparagraph,NPortServerProwithits EthernetconnectionisthebestsolutionavailableforaddingRS-232serialdevicestoyourcomputer. Itallowsyoutoextendtherangeofyouroperation,increasethenumberofportsused,andprovides highthroughput.Theinstallationprocedureisassimpleasinstallingatraditionalmulti-port serial board.Youdon'thavetospendalotoftimelearningadvancednetworkingconceptstoconfigure NPortServerPro.TheleastyouwillneedtodoisinstallanEthernetcardinyourcomputer.

2-2 NPort Server Pro User’s Manual