USB to RS232 Adapters Make Life Easy
USB RS232 conversions are actually pretty uncomplicated when you get right down to it. It’s a pretty simple process that takes very little time to setup and very little previous experience or specific knowledge. All you have to know how to do is connect one end of the cable to the computer, and another to a peripheral. Not much to it!
While just about everyone has heard about USB (if not, go ahead and do a Google search for it), not everyone has actually heard of RS232. RS232 is the fancy way of referring to serial connections; you know, the flat multi-pin connection that you used to have when we all had dot-matrix printers. Well, some peripherals actually still do use and support RS232. In fact, many home entertainment systems are RS232 equipped, mostly due to the fact that transfer speeds over RS232 can actually be pretty fast. Keep in mind though that with connections specifically designed for USB to serial cable interfaces this transfer can be plenty fast. However, with non-native peripherals that aren’t designed to work specifically with a laptop’s USB port, the transfer rate may be abysmal. That is, if you can get the peripheral working in the first place. The worst offender of being slow and difficult to configure is the dot-matrix printer, but those aren’t widely available and supported anymore. You’re basically on your own on that one.
USB RS232 converters are relatively cheap, at least. Spend $20 USD or so and you’ll have a good setup that will run your old peripherals with just a little bit of coaxing. You can find these converters at just about any computer store; Fry’s Electronics sells them, and Best Buy probably does as well. If you can’t find RS232 converters in the stores you might want to try online. Tiger Direct sells a number of them for low prices.