Very Computer

I asked about experiences with multiport serial board and where they
can be purchased recently.  I received many requests to pass on
whatever information I got, and I even got a little bit of
information.

One person has a very cheap 4 port card designed for Xenix which
works.  I don't know which board.

I found out that the Usenet Serial Board II is $255 (US) without
cables, which add $30 to that price.  This is a 4 port board with
16550 UARTs.  You can find out more than you ever wanted to know about
it by anonymous ftp.  Look in pub/serial on nuchat.sccsi.com.  While
this sounds like a nice board, it is very expensive.

The Boca 4 port board has a list price of $199, the 8 port $279, with
cables.  I was quoted $108 and $165, plus $9 shipping and handling, by
Modern Age Consultants.  You can e-mail me for further details.

I bought the Boca 8 port board, the BB1008.  (the 4 port is the
BB1004) It, like the 4 port version, uses chips with the equivalent of
4 16550s in them.  It has a 5 year warranty and was made in the USA.
It also appears to be well made.  The board looks good and, get ready
for a shock, the jumpers are actually labeled.  The cabling consists
of 8 RJ-11 type jacks on the back of the card, 8 6-foot cables, and 8
RJ-11 to DB-25 adapters.

The default I/O addresses worked fine for me, but the default
interrupt conflicts with one of the standard serial ports.  I changed
it to int 5.  (Int 5 is traditionally the second parallel port, isn't
it?)  I recompiled the kernel with #define CONFIG_BOCA at the top of
kernel/chr_drv/serial.c.  That belongs in linux/config.h, I guess, but
I'm lazy.  I also changed the interrupt in serial.c to 5 from 12, but
you can use setserial to do that if you like.  Linux now finds the
board at boot time, and the ports are /dev/ttyS16 through /dev/ttyS23,
which have major number 4, minor numbers 80 through 87.  I haven't
been able to test extensively yet, but it appears to work fine.  I
connected 2 ports by null-modem, ran getty on one and successfully
logged into the system through the other, for example.  I'm going to
be attaching a terminal when I go back to school this fall, and
probably some other computers.

You can e-mail me if you have further questions.

--

: I bought the Boca 8 port board, the BB1008.  (the 4 port is the
: BB1004) It, like the 4 port version, uses chips with the equivalent of
: 4 16550s in them.  It has a 5 year warranty and was made in the USA.
: It also appears to be well made.  The board looks good and, get ready
: for a shock, the jumpers are actually labeled.  The cabling consists
: of 8 RJ-11 type jacks on the back of the card, 8 6-foot cables, and 8
: RJ-11 to DB-25 adapters.

Just a quick comment.  If hardware flow control is one of your requirements,
the 8-port board isn't for you.  There just aren't enough wires in a RJ-11
jack/plug to do the trick.  Note that the board works quite well within the
limits imposed by the number of leads.

I have no connection with Boca and/or its distributors other than as a friend
of a satisfied user (on a SCO UNIX platform).

--Bob Tracy
RCF Information Systems, Inc.

If you only need 4 ports Use an AST/4 clone: Longshine LCS-8880.  Comes
with SOCKETED 16450's and a 4-way D25/Male Pigtail, for around US$75.
Order 16550's from say Jameco for about $60 ($15 a piece), and you have
a 4-port board supported by about every known Unix with 16550 chips on
it for LESS THAN $150.

ALTEX Electronics 1-800-531-5369

Also, you don't HAVE to upgrade ALL the ports at once either.  For
example for 2 modems and 2 terminals just buy 2 '550 chips and swap,
running the terminals off of the '450 chips.

Tel-Em I sent ya.
--

Digital Designs      BBS 1-919-423-4216            Hope Mills, NC 28348-2201
Somewhere in the Styx of North Carolina ...

I still think the STB 4PORT board is a better deal. I plan to buy one
soon. I've read a post that says it works fine under Linux. $110 to your
door for 4 16550s that can live at any interrupt and any COM1-8 port
address is hard to beat.

Not a satified customer yet but just pointing out a good deal.

BAJ
---------------------------- Begin included text ---------------------
             **************************************  
             *** STB 4-COM Card $110 delivered. ***
             **************************************
A 4 port, 16bit, serial I/O card, 112,000 baud max (burst rate), that
provides 4 high performance RS-232 Asynchronous Serial Communications
ports, each on one seperate IRQ, or allows sharing one or more IRQs.
Each port INDEPENDANTLY configurable by jumpers for addresses:
      h3E8, h2E8, h1E8, h1A8, h3F8, h2F8, h1F8, h2A8
          and for IRQs 15, 12, 11 10, 5, 4, 3, 2
       * You CAN use 2 4COM Cards in one machine *
Full 16 byte 16550 FIFO buffering on each port (16554 chip)
Includes 4 (six inch) 8pin DIN to DB9 male converter cables.
15 month manufacturer's warranty & free tech support from STB.
Works fine with DOS, DESQview, DV/X, Windows, and OS/2 2.+

        Remember, our price INCLUDES delivery. (to USA)

 Along with any card order we offer $34.95 Belkin lifetime warranty
   (DB9 Female/DB25 Male) Premium Modem cables for $10.95 each.

Also, along with any card order we offer $18.95 Belkin lifetime warranty
   (DB9 Female/DB25 Male) Serial Adapter Blocks for only $3.65 each.
(these allow you to use your old DB25/DB25 modem cables with the 4COM)    

     All Prices INCLUDE SHIPPING (UPS or US Mail) to USA
Send check or money order (NC residents include 6% sales tax)
to: PreRapture(tm) Solutions,  1806 Albany St ,  Durham, NC 27705-3134

For Orders *ONLY* 1-800-SELLCOM(735-5266)  Ext 64 (VISA/MASTERCARD)
For Technical Questions, leasing, or outside USA call 919-286-1502 Ext 40
STB Tech Support 214-234-8750 / USRobotics Tech Support is 800-982-5151

As advertised in BoardWatch Magazine, Connect Magazine, & Computer Shopper

    Steve Winter PreRapture BBS 919-286-3606 USR-H16/V.32b

---
Another random extraction from the mental bit stream of...
Byron A. Jeff - PhD student operating in parallel!

I'm interested in chatting with anyone who has worked
with the "Kouwell/Koutech" KW-531A-1 four-port cards..
--

& no one will talk to a host that's close............[301] 56-LINUX
Unless the host (that isn't close).........................pob 1433
is busy, hung or dead....................................20915-1433

Quote:(Michael Pereckas) writes:
>I bought the Boca 8 port board, the BB1008.
[....]
>The cabling consists of 8 RJ-11 type jacks on the back of the card,
>8 6-foot cables, and 8 RJ-11 to DB-25 adapters.

Wait a minute....they can't be RJ-11 connectors.  An RJ-11 only has 4
wires, and for high-speed modem connections, you really need at least all
of the following:

   TxD
   RxD
   Signal Ground
   CTS    --- for flow control
   RTS    --- ditto

Also likely to be important at times are DTR and CD.

So that's a minimum of 5 signal leads, and maybe 7.  Sure it wasn't a
proprietary connector that just looks similar to an RJ-11?  If not, how
does the Boca board handle the additional signal leads?

Some info on this would be appreciated, as one of these days (not in the
short term, though), I might want a multi-port board, but if it doesn't
provide for the minimum cabling for hardware flow control, I'm not
interested.

Thanks,
   --jim

--
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AMATEUR RADIO:  (packet station temporarily offline)       AMTOR SELCAL: NIAL
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E-mail me for information about KAMterm (host mode for Kantronics TNCs).

:Wait a minute....they can't be RJ-11 connectors.  An RJ-11 only has 4
:wires, and for high-speed modem connections, you really need at least all
:of the following:

There is a variation of an RJ11 that has 6 wires.  I do not think it goes by
another name, or at least I have not seen another name for it.  I do know that
the 8 wire variation is called RJ45.

--

The BocaBoards use RJ-14 connectors, which only differ from RJ-11's by
having two more contacts.  This is not enough for high-speed dial in
modem use!!  Unless a board has RJ-45's or uses some other different cabling
scheme than RJ-11 or RJ-14, the control signals are simply not there.

So only buy a BocaBoard if you plan to only connect terminals (or PC's
emulating terminals).

steve

--

  Academic Computing, Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, MN

The BocaBoard 2016 has RJ-45 jacks on the external box.  I don't have the
data sheet for the BB1004/8 run off right now, so I can't say for sure what
they have, but most likely the same.

Anyway, the RJ-45 is either a 6 or 8 conductor (I don't know for sure
which, one of them is RJ-45, the other is another RJ number) connector that
looks similar in form to an RJ-11, only on steroids...
--

Motorola Cellular Infrastructure Group             FidoNet : 1:115/439.8
Disclaimer: My employer's views and my views may necessarily differ.
"Sun to burn out in 1.5 billion years!  Clinton has a plan." - Outland