Given an EtherLite and PortServer of an equivalent number of ports, say, 16, why would one choose one over the other? The differences are not immediately apparent, and it would be helpful if the web site provided a comparison of the two.
From what I could glean from the web site, the EtherLite is less expensive, but the PortServer generally has better specs than the EtherLite, for example, in environmental range, supported protocols, speed, power supply options, mounting options (rack vs. shelf), and variety of management interfaces. It seems as though the PortServer is a newer design than the EtherLite; is this true?
The primary difference between the two units is the ability to work as a stand alone unit.
The EtherLite cannot be used as a stand alone unit and will only work with the RealPort driver on an installed host. This gives you COM/tty ports on the associated RealPort host to be configured as you would the native built-in serial ports. It does not have any telnet, ssh, PPP or other features as available with the PortServer product line.
Yes, the PortServer products are newer and can work with the RealPort driver, but also has telnet, reverse telnet, various authentication methods, PPP, rlogin, ssh, port logging, huntgroup, plus more features that can be used without the need for a driver.