Sending Files Through Modem

[Doogle]

Not wishing to put words into his mouth, I think that what Chris was saying is that using the Serial Port for inter-computer communications such as File Transfer has been superceded by Networking. It would, perhaps, be more appropriate to connect the two machines together via a LAN cable. (If just two machines then a "Cross-over" cable.) That, of course, requires that both machines have LAN Ports available. You would then, perhaps, use Winsock and TCP/IP to perform the transfers.

The advantage is that you will achieve faster transfer times, the minimum network speed, these days, is 10Mb(its)/Second, most LAN adapters run at higher speeds than that. Also, TCP is a reliable protocol (in other words, simple transmission errors will be corrected automatically for you, where errors can't be corrected TCP will report them).

The downside is that you may have to purchase LAN cards for your machine(s) and configure them to run IP and TCP (not too difficult) and whilst you could make your own, you'll probably have to purchase a suitable Cable. You also have the choice of not having to run cable, and use Wireless Networking (by purchasing the necessary Wireless adapters)

With Serial Port transfer the maximum speed is about 115Kb(its)/second and you have to perform all your own error recovery in your code. Also, and I personally think it's a shame, you see new Computers being sold these days which don't have serial ports integrated into their Motherboards - they have been superceded by USB, which is a different kettle of fish.

Saying all that, it's still quite OK to use Serial Ports for File Transfer, if you're not too interested in 'extra fast' transfers, there's not too much data involved, and the distance between the two machines is not too great (RS232 is restricted to about 50 feet, 150 feet if you use special high quality cables, depending upon the speed at which data is being sent / received)

(All IMHO)

At the end of the day, it's up to you of course. I personally, have never used Serial Ports for File Transfer