Re: What are folks using for serial consoles these days?

[Daniel Seagraves via NANOG <nanog () lists nanog org>]

> On Dec 17, 2025, at 6:51 PM, Dan Mahoney via NANOG <nanog () lists nanog org> wrote:
>
> Are there things that other folks are using that are "easy" to work with that you've found to have Long firmware 
> lives, decent warranties and low hassle?  Does anything these days actually have DE9s on it?

I’m not sure if it meets your requirements for being supported by a vendor and all that, but the things that actually 
see the most use at my end of the wire are genuine terminals. Most recently I added a LA120 that has been repaired a 
few times by both its past owners and myself. I found a supplier that will sell me newly manufactured ribbon in bulk, 
and I can 3D print the ribbon spools. It’s running such a ribbon right now. The paper can still be ordered from office 
supply houses, the firmware is never going to get updated, the warranty is “can I still get TTL parts?”, and while it 
does not have a DE9 it does have a DB25. As long as the paper doesn’t run out the log is immutable, and I can tear it 
off and write notes on it if I want. Then carry it around and/or copy it and give the copies out as needed.

To accomplish remote access, I have a passive RS-232 sharing device from Black Box that has one “master” port and 
several “terminal” ports. The receive data line from the “master” port is duplicated on the “terminal” ports and the 
transmit line from the terminal ports is logically or'd onto the master port. Thus I can hang two or three 
whatever-the-heck-I-wants in line with the LA120. Dirt simple - it doesn’t even have a power supply, it’s powered by 
the serial devices themselves - and allows for redundancy if the modern stuff attached to it fails to be as reliable as 
the LA120. This is kinda sad if you think about it because in its day the LA120 was not noted for its great longevity, 
and mine is almost as old as I am...

While all this stuff is highly obsolete, there’s no reason stuff today shouldn’t be this painless. The Black Box device 
is trivial in design, you’d just have to make it DE9 instead of DB25 for modern stuff. There are several efforts to 
make an open-source printer with modern parts and it would be relatively simple to add a keyboard to one and obtain a 
terminal. The firmware should not have to do anything fancy that would make frequent updates a necessity. Keep it 
simple and keep it focused. If your terminals are as hard to maintain as a host, and have the same attack surface as a 
host, all you have gained is another host you have to manage, and that’s probably not your goal.


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