Patent ID: 8763107

Claim:
Apparatus comprising: a relay server; a plurality of devices that each comprise a serial port tunnel to implement serial communication, and that are each configured to connect to the relay server using a TCP/IP protocol over a wide area network to implement serial-to-TCP/IP conversion, that log into the relay server based upon a specific login identification protocol, and that are each configurable to transmit only TCP/IP packetized data to and from the relay server; and relay server software that runs on the relay server that cross-connects an arbitrary number of devices that are logged into the relay server based only upon the login identification protocol and without any connection requests subsequent to login to the relay server, and that transmits only TCP/IP packetized data between the selected devices; wherein the apparatus implements cross-connected, server-based, IP-connected, point-to-point and point-to-multipoint connectivity between an arbitrary number of devices.