HyperTerminal is a program used to connect to other computers, online services, host computers and Telnet sites using a modem, a null modem cable or an Ethernet connection. It comes with Windows 95, 98, Millennium, 2000, NT, 2003 and XP. Using HyperTerminal to access remote computers has been in decline since the availability of World Wide Web, but it’s still a useful means of configuring and setting up of modems or checking out connections with other sites. This is how HyperTerminal works; it records the messages passed to or from the computer on the other end of the connection. Thus, it can serve as a troubleshooting tool when a modem is being set up or used. Setting up the HyperTerminal to communicate using a serial port with the modem requires that you take the following steps:
* Right click on the “My Computer” icon on your desktop and go to “properties” and then select “Hardware”. Select the device manager.
* Under ports, there will one called “Communication Port” (COM1). Click on it to open it.
* Proceed to choose the tab for port settings. Confirm that the port has these settings; 19200 for baud rate, 8 data bits, no parity, 1 stop bit Xon and Xoff for data flow control. If these are the settings, save them.
* Proceed to open the HyperTerminal. There will be a prompt asking you to make a new connection, and you will also choose a name for it. When a screen comes up with the option “connect to”, choose the COM that was set up under the device manager.
* The computer is now configured to start communicating with DAQ (Data Acquisition). The HyperTerminal connection should then be saved.
If the USB-Serial converter is the one being used, it will involve a slightly different procedure which will look like this:
* Plug in the converter in to the USB port and you will simply follow the instructions that come on screen. You will need to have the correct CD driver CD for the adapter.
* Once the device is installed, proceed to the “device manager” and find the adapter listed as either communication port 4 or 5.
* Just like you could have done previously, proceed to choose the tab for port settings. Confirm that the port has these settings; 19200 for baud rate, 8 data bits, no parity, 1 stop bit Xon and Xoff for data flow control. If these are the settings, save them.
* Repeat the instructions as previously described when setting up using a serial port (above).
In the alternative, you could set it up using the following method. Start the HyperTerminal .exe program. Then go to the “Start” button, then go to “accessories” and then proceed to “Communications”. Go to HyperTerminal, and select a HyperTerminal entry that does not have an .ht extension.
A dialogue box will then appear. Enter a name (for instance you can choose Setup-COM-1). And then choose an icon. A dialogue box will appear. Click on the selection arrow on the “Connect using” drop- down menu. Choose the COM port your modem is using. The COM property dialogue box will then come up and you select the relevant settings depending on the speed of your modem. For instance, if you have 56k modems, set bits-per-second to around 57,600 to 115,200. A HyperTerminal window will open where you can control the modem with commands.
For more information on Hyper Terminal read What is Hyper Terminal?
