Number of com ports available

Hi,

I am currently developing a virtual com port driver for windows ce. My
question is why there is a limit on the number of ports you can create,
that is number 0-9. I can understand this limit when it comes to
hardware issues with IRQ etc, but is there any way to bypass this limit
when i only do virtual com ports? Most Pocket PC and Smartphones
already occupy most of the ports, so why should there be a 0-9 limit?

Thanks
Wilhelm

Mike
Mon Oct 10 07:00:30 CDT 2005

As I understand it, the problem is that the device name (COMx:) can only be
a maximum of five characters, including the colon at the end. I can't
remember where I read that, though.

Mike.

<wilhelm.lundgren@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1128943172.159844.318070@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
> Hi,
>
> I am currently developing a virtual com port driver for windows ce. My
> question is why there is a limit on the number of ports you can create,
> that is number 0-9. I can understand this limit when it comes to
> hardware issues with IRQ etc, but is there any way to bypass this limit
> when i only do virtual com ports? Most Pocket PC and Smartphones
> already occupy most of the ports, so why should there be a 0-9 limit?
>
> Thanks
> Wilhelm
>

ctacke/>
Mon Oct 10 08:29:18 CDT 2005

It's a limit of the way device.exe works. However there's nothing to
prevent you from adding a different prefix for more COM ports. For example,
use COM0-9, then maybe CMM0-9.

-Chris


<wilhelm.lundgren@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1128943172.159844.318070@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
> Hi,
>
> I am currently developing a virtual com port driver for windows ce. My
> question is why there is a limit on the number of ports you can create,
> that is number 0-9. I can understand this limit when it comes to
> hardware issues with IRQ etc, but is there any way to bypass this limit
> when i only do virtual com ports? Most Pocket PC and Smartphones
> already occupy most of the ports, so why should there be a 0-9 limit?
>
> Thanks
> Wilhelm
>

wilhelm
Mon Oct 10 09:23:35 CDT 2005

Thanks for you answers.

I know about adding different prefixes, problem is that then
thirdpart-applications wont find the ports since they are searching for
COM ports. So you are certain that this is a limit i device.exe? I have
heard that it is possible to go around the problem with the use of
prefixes such as "\\\\.\\COM12". Problem is that i havent gotten it to
work yet.

Wilhelm

Mike
Wed Oct 12 05:56:46 CDT 2005

Can you go non-numeric for the port reference? For example COMA: would be
ten, COMB: eleven, and so on? I suspect this could also crash some non-aware
tpas if it were possible.

Mike.

<wilhelm.lundgren@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1128954215.353671.179490@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Thanks for you answers.
>
> I know about adding different prefixes, problem is that then
> thirdpart-applications wont find the ports since they are searching for
> COM ports. So you are certain that this is a limit i device.exe? I have
> heard that it is possible to go around the problem with the use of
> prefixes such as "\\\\.\\COM12". Problem is that i havent gotten it to
> work yet.
>
> Wilhelm
>