On 5/11/06, Jacob Yocom-Piatt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
---- Original message ----
>Date: Thu, 11 May 2006 13:34:51 -0400
>From: "Austin Murphy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: Re: OT: Serial2ssh device
>To: misc@openbsd.org
>
>> I am seeking advise prior to buying a "serial to ssh" device,
>> sometimes refered to as "serial server" or "serial port server".
>
>You can get a 32port Lantronix for less than $1600. I have the
>SCS3205 and find it very stable and useful. You need to buy or make
>DB-9 adapters and patch cables though. If you get lantronix adapters,
>they are ~$19 each. A ripoff, but all the vendors get you on the
>adapters.
>
>Austin
>
the high cost of these nifty rackmount serial console servers makes them
inaccessible/unattractive to folks like me. i've thought a number of times in
the past that it would be a good idea to buy a bunch of cheapo RS232 serial port
PCI cards and slap them in an old crapbox running openbsd just for this purpose.
i was looking on ebay and saw a couple candidates:
http://cgi.ebay.com/PCI-I-O-Expansion-Card-9-pin-2-Serial-port-RS232_W0QQitemZ6879003538QQcategoryZ90717QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
http://cgi.ebay.com/Two-2-Serial-RS232-Ports-PCI-Expansion-Card-Dual_W0QQitemZ8808795646QQcategoryZ3666QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
both of these run on NetMos chipsets, which are not mentioned on the i386
hardware support page. can anyone confirm that these cards work or tell me they
will with confidence? if these ones are too cheap or unsupported, please suggest
the cheapest known working RS232 serial PCI cards that run under openbsd.
I purchased a 4-port pci ( PCI4S550N ) from startech and was rather
happy with it,
http://www.startech.com/ststore/ItemDetail.cfm?ProductId=PCI4S550N&mt=
I found it online for $41USD.
StarTech is mentioned at http://www.openbsd.org/support.html as well.
and last but not least, it uses a NetMos chipset,
puc0 at pci0 dev 9 function 0 "NetMos 4S" rev 0x01: com, com, com, com
pccom3 at puc0 port 0 irq 10: ns16550a, 16 byte fifo
pccom4 at puc0 port 1 irq 10: ns16550a, 16 byte fifo
pccom5 at puc0 port 2 irq 10: ns16550a, 16 byte fifo
pccom6 at puc0 port 3 irq 10: ns16550a, 16 byte fifo
which is mentioned in the puc(4) manpage.
