Laptop, COM Ports, Putty?

[Punkrulz]

Hey guys,

With my job I have to periodically connect to other systems such as Sun. When my company ordered our laptops, they did not order this batch with serial ports; I guess they too are being phased out. We have been using a USB to Serial adapter to be able to console into the devices, but one of the biggest pains is that the COM port is always changing.

This really becomes a pain because in either putty or hyperterm, I have to manually select which COM port the device is using, which means (to my knowledge) digging into device manager and finding out that way.

1) Is there an easier way to find what COM port is associated to a specific device, other than digging around in device manager?
2) Is there a way to permanently assign a specific device to that COM port?
3) Is there a way to get Hyperterm or Putty to scan for an active connection on the COM, rather than having to manually select which COM port it decides to use today?

I think that's it. Now I'm off to find more tips and tricks regarding Putty.

 

[Admiral Michael]

Do you always plug it into the same USB port?

 

[Punkrulz]

Hey Michael, I've been alternating between two ports on my laptop. It may or may not have gone in the same one, however I've gotten at least 4 different COM ports while attempting to use this thing.