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Stallion
has released Windows 2000 drivers for the EasyIO and EasyConnection
range of multiport cards. These drivers are supplied on the Microsoft
Windows 2000 CD. At this time no other software is required to install
the EasyIO and EasyConnection products on Windows 2000. At such
time as later versions of the drivers are released, they will be
made available here.
Stallion's EasyIO,
EasyConnection 8/64 and EasyConnection Rapid Access PCI multiport
serial adapters, when detected by the Windows 2000 installation,
will have the associated drivers and utilities automatically installed.
ISA versions of the EasyIO and EasyConnection cards have to be manually
added to the Windows 2000 device configuration using the Add/Remove
Hardware function of the operating system.
About The New
Drivers
Once the Stallion
PCI multiport serial adapter has been installed into the computer
and Windows 2000 boots, the operating system detects the new hardware
and identifies the PCI card as a Stallion device (EasyIO, EasyConnection
8/64 or EasyConnection RapidAccess). It then finds all the serial
ports and numbers them, along with any attached devices, including
analog modems, ISDN modems, bar code scanners, printers, and so
on.
The Windows 2000
Device Manager (above) supports 'Multiport Serial Adapters' as class
of devices. Clicking on this reveals details about the Stallion
adapter card and lists all the Stallion ports associated with the
card to be configured.
The 'Port Properties'
(above) allow port settings to be changed, and an advanced button
allows configuration of custom Stallion extensions for flow control,
RS485 party line operation, etc. The 'Port Monitor' function delivers
all the functionality of Stallion's Easyadm tool for Windows with
the addition of a serial loop back test (also above) for the selected
Stallion port.
All these extensions
have been achieved within the standard Windows 2000 Device Manager
environment and do not require the installer to run any other application
to configure or monitor serial ports. Stallion's multiport serial
adapters can be installed and managed with far less overhead than
devices which do not have property extensions or port monitoring
tools to debug serial connectivity issues.
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