Can I change the COM number assignment for my Sealevel serial card?

There are only a few cases where you would want to change a COM number assignment. Your application only works at COM1 through COM4 and the Sealevel serial device you just installed comes in at COM5 or higher. Or, you just installed a multiport serial card and the COM numbers were not assigned consecutively. The ability to change the COM number assignments depends on which Windows operating system you are using. To complicate things further, a previously installed USB or PCMCIA device may not even be physically in the system when you attempt to make the change. Sealevel highly recommends using the installed COM numbers if at all possible. However, Sealevel offers a few solutions for changing COM number assignments depending on which operating system you are using.

Older versions of Windows (95/98/ME) do not provide a way to change the COM number assignments. The Sealevel SeaCOM serial driver automatically installs the Port Manager utility and it can be found in the Start menu in the SeaCOM folder. Port Manager provides a method to change the COM number assignments in these versions of Windows.

Windows NT does not provide a way to change COM number assignments either. The Sealevel SeaCOM serial drivers installs the Advanced Ports utility in the Control Panel. Advanced Ports is used to change COM assignments in Windows NT.

In Windows 2000/XP, you can change the COM number assignment using Device Manager. In Device Manager, select the “Ports COM and LPT” category, select the COM port you want to change, click on the “Port Settings” tab, then click the “Advanced” button. A new dialog window appears with a drop down box that allows you to change the COM number assignment.