>I'm looking for (a) a DLL/APi that will allow me to read and write to multiple serial ports, not just the 2 standard on most PC's, and (b) a hardware solution that will allow me to connect several RS232 interfaces to my PC.
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>Ideally, the software/hardware will work together to allow my to read and write data to 10-20 RS232 card swipe devices.


Derek;

I came from the electronic engineering world. One of the funniest titles of an electronics book I have ever read was “The RS232 Standard”. Anyone who has experience with RS232 knows what was on the first page of this book of about 1000 pages. “There is no such thing as a RS232 Standard”! It still makes me laugh. By the way it was a good book. If there was a standard the book might be a 20 or so pages at most.

Hope you solve your problem. Is there anything out there in the RF world that might help interface to a computer? We used something of that nature about 4 years ago and I am sure that industry has exploded since then.

Tom