Virtual modem??

[RyanEOD]

Ok,

We have a customer that we have installed a dial-up modem for connections for maintenance. All of our other clients we connect directly through TCP-IP. Since we don't want to install an analog line at every service technicians desk, is there a smart solution to having one system with the analog line/lines and everyone else install a virtual adapter of that? I know we could just connect the modem on one PC and then RDC in to that PC, but we wanted to see if there was any more flexibility out there. Thanks for your time!

 

[RyanEOD]

I am thinking something like:

http://www.bb-elec.com/product_family.asp?FamilyId=528

Then just connecting a USB modem and the analog line to the modem. Has anyone tried anything like this? I know I use the serial to ethernet (

http://www.bb-elec.com/product_family.asp?familyid=644)

to connect my phone switches maintenance ports to the local LAN so I can maintain them from anywhere on the office LAN. So, in theory this should work. I shot a message to B&B and see if they have any idea or if anyone has tried it.

Just looking for possibilities.

 

[donb01]

I believe you can install a modem on a windows PC and make it a shared resource to other folks in the network. I've never done it, but I'm pretty sure you can. The people accessing the modem would set the shared resource up as a virtual serial port....

Another option is to buy an Ethernet to Serial adapter and hook it to the modem - then, theoretically, everyone should be able to access the modem across the LAN. I've never used one of these either, but I know that I just installed a new PBX and the vendor brought in a Digi Ethernet to serial adapter in case we needed it for remote access, so I know such a beast exists.

 

[RyanEOD]

Yeah, I have used the Serial to Ethernet before, was thinking of going USB to Ethernet, but same idea. Thanks donb01.

 

[Sympology]

Never used it but...

http://pcmicro.com/NetModem/

Has a trial version as well

Robert Wilensky:
We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true.

 

[RyanEOD]

Sympology,

Thank you, I will look at this!

 

[Lex87]

[highlight][tt]Never used it but...

http://pcmicro.com/NetModem/

Has a trial version as well [/tt][/highlight]

Sympology beat me to it. I have used netmodem and it does work pretty well. I believe the same author makes a host of comm port tools for cloning duplicating and sharing.

You should find what you need one way or another over there.