Aaron,

I've had personel experience with a project that executives were determined to have 'run in a browser' but needed serial communication through the browser with expensive bar coding equipment. This was several years ago and they had a lot invested in existing serial bar coding equipment. Although it would be more 'doable' now I think that anything interacting with hardware is going to be easier with a fatter client. Plus even once I was able to 'read' the serial data it was another challenge entirely to manipulate the data in a local file like the device expected and then send the data back to the web server. In other words, depending on the device and your requirements it there could be more hurdles than just reading/writing to the com port.

I personally think it would be more challenging to maintain and troubleshoot a system with web browsers interacting with serial hardware than the potential upsides. You most certainly will have to install some sort of ActiveX control and have strict security setting requirements for the browser. So it would be unrealistic for any interaction with the serial ports to have the same thin client advantage as standard web projects. If anything I would think configuring the web browser security and active X controls would be more hassle than running an install shield setup.

There is also the possibility that a future 'security' patch from MS update service could render the application unusable as IE is very fluid in terms of security settings and how the browser interacts with the OS.

Good luck... I'm interested in seeing how this works out for you.

Greg



\>Hi,
>
>Anyone know if an ASP.NET client can monitor a standard serial COM port in real time? For example, there is a device connected to the serial port and while a particular ASP.NET page is loaded in Internet Explorer it will have to monitor the serial port communications and act on it.
>
>Thanks in advance.
>
>Regards,
>
>Aaron