From owner-freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Oct 21 13:33:03 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 049B816A4CE for ; Thu, 21 Oct 2004 13:33:03 +0000 (GMT) Received: from smtpq1.home.nl (smtpq1.home.nl [213.51.128.196]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id ABFB443D46 for ; Thu, 21 Oct 2004 13:33:00 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from dodell@sitetronics.com) Received: from [213.51.128.133] (port=34500 helo=smtp2.home.nl) by smtpq1.home.nl with esmtp (Exim 4.30) id 1CKd3s-0007Hb-00; Thu, 21 Oct 2004 15:33:00 +0200 Received: from cc740438-a.deven1.ov.home.nl ([82.75.136.183]:3088) by smtp2.home.nl with esmtp (Exim 4.30) id 1CKd3q-0000fD-JZ; Thu, 21 Oct 2004 15:32:58 +0200 Message-ID: <4177BA8D.7030803@sitetronics.com> Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2004 15:33:01 +0200 From: "Devon H. O'Dell" User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 0.8 (Windows/20040913) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Poul-Henning Kamp References: <26860.1098365059@critter.freebsd.dk> In-Reply-To: <26860.1098365059@critter.freebsd.dk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-AtHome-MailScanner-Information: Please contact support@home.nl for more information X-AtHome-MailScanner: Found to be clean cc: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Suggestions for decent multiport serial cards X-BeenThere: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: General discussion of FreeBSD hardware List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2004 13:33:03 -0000 Poul-Henning Kamp wrote: > In message <4177B6D7.2060704@sitetronics.com>, "Devon H. O'Dell" writes: > >>Hello list, >> >>I'm looking into making a console server for my machines at the >>datacenter, and I'm wondering what decent (and hopefully inexpensive, of >>course) multiport PCI serial controllers are available. > > > One thing you may want to consider is this interesting gadget: > > http://www.bwct.de/multi_serial.html > > it's a six port serial USB adapter and the man behind the company > is tisco@freebsd.org > > I havn't tried it myself, (indeed I may even have broken the driver > for it :-), but it looks a lot more sensible to me than PCI serial > ports since you can locate it closer to the machine and only have > to run a USB cable over to it. > > To make it 100% ideal for me, it would have a reed-relay output > next to each serial port, so that I can use it as a remote reset > as well. Thanks, PHK. This indeed looks very interesting, and might be ideal as I do live in Holland, so it won't be a big hassle to ship things. Interestingly, I took a look at their site, and they appear to have a ready-made 1U, 18-port console + relay solution for only 567EUR, which might be ideal for me. I'm definitely going to ask for more information on this. Kind regards, Devon H. O'Dell