I have a device I need a 9 pin serial port to configure. How can I add this capability to my laptop?

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Use a USB Serial adapter. Something like this.

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Alternatively depending on the age of your laptop there are PCMCIA to Serial adapters.

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You can get serial port cards that plug into an expresscard or PCMCIA slot. (e.g. this one)

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A USB to Serial adapter like this one:

You did not mention an OS, but this one will work for windows and it is the best one I have found for OS X.

http://www.amazon.com/Keyspan-Speed-Serial-Adapter-USA-19HS/dp/B0000VYJRY

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I do not recommend using simple 1 port adapters. In my job I got lot o trouble using low quality one port USB Serial adapters. We now use RocketPort 4 port RS232 to USB. It's much more reliable and faster then these single port solutions based on FTDI chips.

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