Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Adapter for Terminal Emulation Applications
Review: Flawless Adapter for Terminal EmulationI've succesfully used this unit on three XP laptops, two IBM Thinkpads (XP Pro, I think) and my new HP ZD7000 (XP Home). My sole interest in this device has to do with terminal emulation, e.g. for use with a terminal emulator like Hyperterm for comm-port based comunication between the notebook and various pieces of equipment that require a serial terminal for configuration. I have no experience with it's capabilities as a sync device for palms. All three installs were simple and flawless. Configuration and use are just as simple and flawless, at least insofar as I can tell. An interesting anecdote: one of the Thinkpads has a built-in serial port, but it's flaky with my terminal emulation software of choice, Token 2 Plus (it seems to function perfectly with Hyperterm). However, the Adapter performed perfectly with Token 2 Plus, which leads me to believe that this device, in conjunction with USB and the device drivers, is more comprehensive and complete than the built-in serial port. Also note that there are rumors that the notebook must be be power-cycled to recognize and succesfully configure the device, each time it is plugged in. That was certainly not the case on my laptops: ithis Adapter is just like most, if not all, other USB devices I've worked with: after install of the initial drivers the device is configured and ready to go within a second or two after plugging it into a USB slot. 5 stars.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Adapter for Terminal Emulation Applications
Review: Flawless Adapter for Terminal Emulation I've succesfully used this unit on three XP laptops, two IBM Thinkpads (XP Pro, I think) and my new HP ZD7000 (XP Home). My sole interest in this device has to do with terminal emulation, e.g. for use with a terminal emulator like Hyperterm for comm-port based comunication between the notebook and various pieces of equipment that require a serial terminal for configuration. I have no experience with it's capabilities as a sync device for palms. All three installs were simple and flawless. Configuration and use are just as simple and flawless, at least insofar as I can tell. An interesting anecdote: one of the Thinkpads has a built-in serial port, but it's flaky with my terminal emulation software of choice, Token 2 Plus (it seems to function perfectly with Hyperterm). However, the Adapter performed perfectly with Token 2 Plus, which leads me to believe that this device, in conjunction with USB and the device drivers, is more comprehensive and complete than the built-in serial port. Also note that there are rumors that the notebook must be be power-cycled to recognize and succesfully configure the device, each time it is plugged in. That was certainly not the case on my laptops: ithis Adapter is just like most, if not all, other USB devices I've worked with: after install of the initial drivers the device is configured and ready to go within a second or two after plugging it into a USB slot. 5 stars.
Rating:
Summary: This adapter works fine...
Review: Got this adapter to use with a laptop that only had USB ports to communicate to some PLC's, which can be picky about communications. It works fine, and I found that, depending on which USB port I plugged the adapter into the adapter would show up as either comm4 or comm5, but if you think about it it makes sense for it to work that way, especially if you needed more than one adapter. If you want it to be comm4 all the time, for example, always plug it into the same usb port.
........Curtis
Rating: 
Summary: This product DOES work with Mac OS X
Review: Hello, This is to contradict a negative review for using this product w/ Mac OS X 10.2. I have successfully used it in combination with ZTerm to configure a Cisco router. It certainly works fine for me. I just had to install the os X driver from the iogear website. Thank you,
Rating:
Summary: XP/Win 2000 user
Review: I bought mine in BestBuy store and tried it on both Dell Latitude D600/win XP and Dell desktop/win 2000 with GPS device (Trimble Placer 450).
It worked better than expected since Windows XP recognized new USB hardware and showed me new COM4 port in Device Manager instantly. No need for installation CD that is btw. supplied with the cable. I could instantly get data to the HyperTerminal application. The only thing I do not like is the price. I would go for the cheaper, but had to have the cable immediately, therefore I purchased it in the store.
Rating: 
Summary: no driver for XP on the CDROM & bug in download driver
Review: I bought this because I liked the compact design. I was surprised to find that there was no driver for XP. I downloaded the latest driver for XP, but there is a bug during the installation. The device requires a file called serport.sys for the installation and the file provided on the download is called ser2pl.sys - Could not install the unit. I even tried renaming the file. I am waiting for a response from Iogear's technical support page. Where is the quality assurance! Also, XP says that the driver is not officially signed by Microsoft.
Rating: 
Summary: Driver causes Windows XP to crash
Review: I bought this even though the driver installation instructions for use with Windows XP on the IOGear website were suspicious. They say that during installation a warning will come up that says the driver is not certified for Windows XP and shouldn't be installed, but that you should ignore the warning and install the driver anyway. It also says the driver was updated in June 2003, but looking at the driver file itself it is dated September 14, 2000. I installed it warily and the device worked okay at first, but after putting my PC in standby and then waking it up again the serial port no longer worked and when trying to use it again I got my first ever blue screen crash in Windows XP. So if you use Windows XP and want to still be able to put your PC in standby or hibernate without crashing then avoid this product until they actually have a working and certified Windows XP driver for it.
Rating:
Summary: Driver causes Windows XP to crash
Review: I bought this even though the driver installation instructions for use with Windows XP on the IOGear website were suspicious. They say that during installation a warning will come up that says the driver is not certified for Windows XP and shouldn't be installed, but that you should ignore the warning and install the driver anyway. It also says the driver was updated in June 2003, but looking at the driver file itself it is dated September 14, 2000. I installed it warily and the device worked okay at first, but after putting my PC in standby and then waking it up again the serial port no longer worked and when trying to use it again I got my first ever blue screen crash in Windows XP. So if you use Windows XP and want to still be able to put your PC in standby or hibernate without crashing then avoid this product until they actually have a working and certified Windows XP driver for it.
Rating:
Summary: Oh well, works in Win ME, and somewhat in XP
Review: I regret having to amend my previous recommendation. The adapter still works fine on my laptop in Win ME, but in Win XP on my desktop it has some problems. When I plug in the adapter, sometimes XP puts it in COM4, but sometimes COM5. Either way, it will not work unless I reboot XP with the adapter connected. I think this is an XP problem, but it certainly makes using the adapter less convenient. I have found Win XP to be about as awful as previous versions of windows ... it is true that it seldom goes blue screen ... but I still have to reboot a couple of times a day, and hardware installation is still "plug and pray". To think Bill Gates is the richest guy in the country ... maybe Marx was right after all.
Rating:
Summary: Doesn't Work
Review: I should have believed those other reviews that says this Serial Adapter doesn't work on XP, because it doesn't. The driver included on the CD does absolutly nothing, and the adapter simply will not work. Do not buy it if you are running XP.
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