Plugable

Turning One Computer Into Four With Userful and Plugable

Posted on 07. Jul, 2011 by Bernie Thompson in Tips

Modern PCs have spare computing power. If it were possible to share a PC among many users, you could save a significant amount of money and energy.

There is a new generation of simple USB hardware devices, and operating system software which support them, which now enable this.

Our Plugable DC-125 Docking Station is one of these USB devices, and below we’re showing how it works in combination with Userful Multiseat Linux 2011.

Microsoft’s Windows Multipoint Server 2011 product is better known than Userful, but Userful has a significant advantage – if you’re willing to run Linux, it offers better per-client performance and scalability in terms of the number of stations supported per PCs.

Take a look at the video below to see Userful in action with a single PC and several of our Plugable DC-125 Docking Clients.

Let us know if you have any questions about how our solution works. And read and see more at our product page.

Installing the Plugable USB to RS-232 DB9 Serial Adapter on Windows 7

Posted on 05. Jul, 2011 by Bernie Thompson in Windows

Windows 7 will detect and pop up a wizard to install drivers when our Plugable USB to Serial adapter is plugged in, but it’s also easy (as essential on other operating systems) to install the driver software first. Here’s how.

Get the driver from: http://plugable.com/drivers/prolific/

You’ll want to download the driver and unzip it anywhere on your desktop. Once you have, double click on it to start the installation.

The installation is relatively simple and no questions are asked. When it’s done you should see something like this:

Now go ahead and connect the adapter. You should get a pop-up looking like this:

Finally Windows should report that the device has been installed:

On Device Manager you should be looking at something like this:

• Now, If you want to change the COM port assignment, here’s how to change the COM port for a USB Serial adapter on Windows 7

How to change the COM port for a USB Serial adapter on Windows 7

Posted on 04. Jul, 2011 by Bernie Thompson in Windows

Start by going to the Device Manager. Once there do the following:
Expand the Ports ‘(COM& LPT)’

You should be looking at something like this:

As you can see Windows has set the port to COM10. However many legacy applications expect the port to be between 1-4. Let’s change that:
Right click on the device and click on ‘Properties’.

Click on ‘Port Settings’. Then click on ‘Advanced…’.

Once you’re in ‘Advanced Settings for COM10’ on the bottom you can see the ‘COM Port Number: COM10’. Click on that to change it to the lowest possible number (between 1-4).

Then click ‘OK’ on all open Property Windows.
Now the device should look like this: