A null-modem emulator is a software program that emulates a null-modem cable connection between two serial ports on the same computer, allowing local communication with applications expecting direct serial connections.
A null-modem emulator is a software program that emulates a null-modem cable connection between two serial ports on the same computer. A null-modem cable contains crossover wiring that connects the transmit pin on one device to the receive pin on the other device, and vice versa. This allows two serial devices to communicate directly with each other.
A null-modem emulator creates virtual serial ports on a computer that behave as if they are connected to each other via a null-modem cable. This allows applications that are designed to communicate over a direct serial connection to interact with each other locally on the same computer, without needing an actual serial cable between two physically separate devices.
Null-modem emulators can be useful for development and testing of serial communications software. For example, you could create a virtual connection between a serial terminal program and serial data generation software running locally on your computer during software development and debugging.
Some common uses cases for null-modem emulators include connecting serial terminals or console applications to emulators or virtual machines, creating serial tunneling/bridging connections, and implementing serial-to-network proxy software. Popular null-modem emulation software packages include com0com for Windows and socat for Linux.