Dear Kalpak,
sorry you havent read the thread completely. I have mentioned that
I did have PIII 800Mhz "desktop" with 2serial ports, 1parallel port
but no USB2 ports. I purchased ACER ASPIRE 5570Z notebook with
factory installed Vista Home Premium OS. At that time I had no idea that
Vista would cause so many problems.Notebook and Desktop have same
width displays 14" each but notebook display is better. Notebook
consumes only 30W power while desktop used to hog more than 120W.
Notebook is kinder on my inverter as I can work 4hrs at a strech
whereas after 1.5Hrs desktop had to be shut down. Where I live
there is sometimes 2.5Hrs power cut at a time. So I have given
away desktop to my friend for free!
Using external modem for making extrnal COM is my idea and I am
waiting for response from stalwarts at the Forum. It should be simple
setup with RJ11 connected to notebook & socket of extrnal modem.
Plus some arrangement with cable that 6~12V DC appears on cable.
The embedded COM port is then connected to COM port of modem.
Modem needs to be initialised on other PC for Baud rate, databits,
parity etc. Software on Notebook should be able to use COMx which
is driving the internal modem. I hope that this thing would substitute
USB to Serial converter even for Vista !