[c-nsp] Serial lead

[Nick Hilliard]

On 29/03/2011 09:29, Michael Robson wrote:
> I have a new Macbook pro running Snow Leopard that i want to be able to
> connect to Cisco console ports and before getting the Mac I thought that
> this would be trivial; but I see now that people can have problems
> finding USB-to-Serial leads that actually work with their Macs. I have
> tried a Keyspan serial adapter which works well, but as I want to buy a
> few I'm slightly reluctant to spend £40 a pop for something so simple.
> Do people have recommendations of cheaper alternatives that consistently
> work, or do I need to bite the bullet and buy Keyspan connectors?

The keyspan USA-19HS does not work well on 32 bit os/x these days, and 
barely at all on 64 bit.  There is a pre-alpha quality driver on the 
keyspan web site, but it causes more trouble than it's worth (i.e. kernel 
panics, randomly stops working until you reboot, etc).  Definitely would 
not buy again.

I use a prolific based usb-serial converter these days.  Much cheaper and 
smaller than the keyspan unit, and it has much better support on os/x and 
freebsd.

Nick