OmniServer connectivity with virtual COM ports

I am doing a pilot for a client of ours. We want to get the data from a checkweigher into our HMI application. The checkweigher has a serial COM port. Due to electromagnetic interference in this site, we want to trial a serial to Ethernet converter with WLAN connectivity. With this we need to create a virtual COM port to get the data into any computer on the LAN. We want to know if your OmniServer can work with virtual COM ports or do they must have a physical serial port to work?

A virtual COM port can work as long as the software makes the port look like a COM port to Windows it should be fine. We have seen misbehaving virtual COM port programs cause problems previously. If you can get Hyperterminal to send or receive a message on the COM port, OmniServer will also work.

What we typically prefer is that you to configure OmniServer to talk directly to the device using an Ethernet Winsock device.  This is possible when the serial converter supports acting as a TCP Server as opposed to mapping to a virtual COM port.  You would then simply use a TCP Winsock device in your OmniServer, specifying the IP Address and Port of the converter.

Although it should work to use the virtual COM port, it does add an additional layer of potential failure that will make it more difficult to trace if problems occur with communications.