How to Connect Two Computers With a Serial Cable

The connection by serial cable between one computer and another is a method that can be employed when recycling old equipment for new purposes. It is a method that you can do use to allow a channel of communication between the computers (or other like devices such as networking equipment control ports) when a more prevalent method of networking with RJ45 Ethernet networking is not available or desired.

Steps:

1
First a cable must be obtained for the connection. For tips of how this can be done please see the #TIPS section of this page

2
Enter the cable to each of the computers via the Serial port. It is important not to get confused between the "Serial Comms" port and the "Universal Serial Bus Port".

3
Start up a Serial Communication program. Often people have a Windows by Microsoft operating system - and by a default the most used program for this is Hyper Terminals.

4
Select the correct Serial Port from the File/New Connection menu item

5
The two computers are now connected physically and a communication path has been created between them. You can now send text characters between the computers using the HyperTerminal application.