Question: I have one Device Server, and I want to receive data from it on several different computers on the network, all at the same time. How do I do this?
Answer: This can be done using UDP Broadcast. Perform the following steps:
Disable any and all firewalls you may have running, including Norton, Windows Firewall, etc. Firewalls often block broadcast traffic.
Go into DS Manager, and open the properties for the Device Server you want to configure.
Under Network Settings, set Port to the port you want to Device Server to listen on.
Set Transport Protocol to UDP.
Set Routing Mode to Server OR Client (Master)
Set Connection mode to On data OR command
Set Destination IP Address to 255.255.255.255 – THIS IS THE IMPORTANT PART. This address is the broadcast address on your network – anything sent here goes out as a broadcast to everyone.
Set Destination Port to whatever port you want the broadcast to happen on. You can leave it at 1001. Just remember what you set here – it will be used later for configuring the Virtual Serial Port. This is also an important setting.
Set the Gateway and Subnet mask settings correctly, according to your netowrk.
Under the Serial Settings tab, set RTS/CTS flow control to Disabled or Remote
Set Baud Rate, Parity, Data bits to the correct settings for your serial device.
Set On-the-Fly Commands to Disabled
That's it. Click OK, close DS Manager, and open the VSP Manager:
This has to be done on every one of the computers you would like to get the data.
Open the Virtual Serial Port Manager (VSP Manager).
Go into the properties of the VSP you would like to get the data on.
Set Transport Protocol as UDP.
Set Routing Mode as Server.
Set Listening Port as 1001 (or whatever you previously set it in the Device Server, as described above).
That's It! Now when you open the VSP, it will just listen for connections and get the data. It will get the data from the broadcast address as well (the data the Device Server is broadcasting to the whole network). So now it will work.
Simply put, yes, it can. It cannot initiate a session (it doesn't know WHO to send the data to). BUT, after a session already exists, it certainly can reply (if you tell it to – if it gets an order to send any data back).
If you have several DSes which are broadcasting, the Virtual Serial Port will reply to the last one (if you tell it to send any data).
Since this method works using broadcast, it will not work through gateways and other network equipment which blocks broadcast communications. This means it will work in the confines of one subnet – one network segment.
