[Elecraft] OT Ethernet/RS-232

[Bill Frantz]

I would say there are many many more computer to computer 
connections over TCP than over RS-232. And many more over PPPoE <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point-to-point_protocol_over_Ethernet>.

As far as I can tell, hams are the only users of RS-232 left. 
(RS-232 has the wonderful advantage of making it easy to build 
interfaces.) I don't think there are any new laptop computers 
with RS223 ports. Are there any desktops/towers?

I am a big fan of the IP protocol family for general 
communications between devices. With a broad collection of 
protocols which include flow-controlled point-to-point (TCP), 
Multicast <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_multicast>, Datagram 
(UDP); most communication problems can be solved with a 
well-tested protocol.

Full disclosure: One of the happiest days of my life was about 8 
years ago when I got rid of the last RS-232 connection in my 
house. Newer systems used USB and ethernet and older ones got 
turned off. Then I got active in ham radio...

Cheers - Bill, AE6JV

On 11/27/12 at 2:03 PM, w3fpr at embarqmail.com (Don Wilhelm) wrote:

>I would submit that RS-232 is still the common denominator for 
>point to point computer communications.  No licenses, no 
>registration, no unique IP addresses, just "communicate".

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