[Soekris] Second Serial Port as RJ45?

[Henry Spencer]

> > Put dual DIN connectors on the box instead -- achieves the goal of reducing
> > real estate, but according to a standard.

The mini-DIN connectors have a couple of problems, alas.  For one thing,
the usual ones have no mechanical locking, which is a serious defect in
some operating environments.  For another, to do nonstandard cabling --
which is far from rare in the serial world -- you pretty much have to use
an adapter to convert them to some more tinker-friendly connector first. 

RJ-45 would be a much better choice, if only people followed a single
standard.  (Any single standard; even the EIA standard that everyone
ignores would be better than each device being different.)

> The Nemith system admin book has a scheme from Berkeley to wire RJ-45
> well.  A straight cable is DTE-DCE, a reversed cable is a null modem!

An overrated virtue, especially if you prefer to use Cat5 cabling rather
than having separate cable types for network and serial.  (A Cat5 crossover
is not the same as a reversed flat cable.)

                                                          Henry Spencer
                                                       henry at spsystems.net