Subject: Goodbye RS232, Part II Last year Joe Desposito at EE Product News posted a sad little editorial about losing the trusty serial ports on our PC's to the faster, hipper world of USB. It was bluesy and soulful, almost like a tribute to Ray Charles. (My favorite Ray Charles song is the one he did with Quincy Jones: "I'll be good to you- I'll give it up with my credit cards, like Visa, MasterCharge, American Express, Turn my pants upside down. Any day of the week!") Ah yes, the inimitable Ray Charles. Playing his Baby Grand with Billy Joel. And I've Got a Woman, and Hallelujah I love her so. Gotta love ol' Ray. Ray Charles lives on, my friend. He's immortalized by music. And, dear subscribers, my serial ports live on too, doggonit. So what, you ask, makes a serial port immortal? Verily, serial ports shall live on as long as there are devices that want to talk to them. Information wants to be free. Whether it's dusty serial ports in the bowels of your factory, patiently awaiting the fellowship of your laptop, or a copy of "Do I ever Cross Your Mind" in a dusty record bin, some things never die. Joe was deluged with responses from the Goodbye RS232 column. 232 has many supporters. So now that your new Dell or Toshiba lacks a serial port, what shall we do about it? Your options are legion. But for our customers, the answer is usually a serial server. Transports your serial data via Ethernet and the Internet to any location in the world. Not all serial servers are created equal. We keep refining ours. The latest innovation is the ability to multicast or unicast your serial data to a single or multiple locations, via Ethernet. You want multiple monitors in your SCADA system to report the data? Multiple IP addresses, not a problem. You can do this with UDP (ultra fast) or with TCP (up to 8 client connections). Plus we made it a LOT easier to configure and diagnose your connections remotely, with a cool browser- based control panel. Give the serial server an IP address and you can access it from anywhere, whether you're in Western Nebraska or East Pakistan: http://www.bb-elec.com/product_family.asp?FamilyId=2&s=102804 WIRELESS: More than 802.11! You'd have to be living in Siberia to not notice the avalanche of wireless mania that's going on right now. Won't be long before babies start saying "802.11" along with "mommy" and "daddy". But hey, sometimes 802.11 is just not what you want. Why not? Well obviously security is a concern. If someone can buy a gadget at Circuit City and intercept your data, that might be a bad thing. Fortunately there are many other kinds of wireless. We've got a whole collection of radios that operate at 900MHz and 2.4GHz. Each transmits data in its own proprietary format which means it takes a determined hacker to crack 'em. Many can transmit many miles (no small feat with 802.11!). See http://www.bb-elec.com/product_multi_family.asp?MultiFamilyId=9&s=102804 Is a YAGI ANTENNA just the thing for you? Whether your motive is greater range or increased security, a directional antenna can do much to further your cause. It keeps your signal where it belongs. Yagis are dipole antennas with a reflector on one end. If you hold out your arms to form a dipole and have the reflector behind you, you would receive signals with maximum gain from in front of you. We have a collection of Yagi antennas on Page 37 of our catalog, so you can focus your signal exactly as you wish. Our YE240015 has an impressive 12.5dB of gain. You can find our antenna collection online at: http://www.bb-elec.com/product_multi_family.asp?MultiFamilyId=8&s=102804 Well I gotta go to the theater now - I'm hoping I can dodge the boss, Don, and get a sneak preview of "Ray." Rumor has it that the performance of "Georgia On My Mind" is a roof raiser. Off to the movies! Questions? Comments? Rants? Raves? Email us at mailto:support@bb-elec.ccom. I'll get to 'em when I get in tomorrow. But shhh! Don't tell Don about my secret matinee. Happy Connections, Mike Fahrion B&B Electronics mailto:support@bb-elec.com