What is running on a serial / com port?

Is there any way to find out what is running on a serial port? I am trying to get the TiVO updates through my computer, and it isn't working. I had it set up right, or so I thought, and it wasn't working. So I checked the Hyperterminal and it information was going through it. However, now it says that another device is using the "telephony" and I have no idea what it would be. There is only one serial port on my motherbaord. However, I have my Palm Vx going through a serial / usb adapter listed under Com3. I tried unpluggin that and it still says that something else is using the Com 1 port. I am using Windows XP Pro.

I have my Palm Vx going through a serial / usb adapter listed under Com3. I tried unpluggin that and it still says that something else is using the Com 1 port.

Unplugging the palm is not enough, you have to disable the palm software.

I tried that and it still does the same thing...are there any programs that can tell me what is using that port?

Go to your bios and change it to com2. See who complains.

Keep in mind that Com 1 and Com 3 both use the same IRQ. Only the base IO changes. On my Ipaq, I am using com 14. Never had an issue.

The problem he was having is that he didn't delete the incomming connection before trying hyperterminal. I still am having problems and posted another thread about it Link

the problem seems to be that the Tivo is putting out the information, but the computer is not accepting or recognizing it. Are there any typical network settings that should be changed for the computer to accept this incoming information?

We had a wicked problem getting a serial link to a timeclock to work (you know, punch in/punch out kind of thing). McAfee VirusScan was the culprit. Why in god's green earth the virus scanner needed a COM port was (is) beyond me. HTH.

-Zeke

I am resurrecting this old thread because I am having Tivo problems again....when I set up a new internet connection ( which is Step 3 on this link http://www.tivohelp.com/archive/tivohelp.swiki.net/45.html I keep getting an error so I reset the computer. However, after I reset it, that internet connection seems deleted (although sometimes I have gotten message before I tried to set it up saying that the Incoming Connection depend on the Routing and Remote Access service which was unable to start.) Any ideas on what might make this internet connection 'disappear'?

it seems that I am getting the connection to not disappear. However, now the 'sent' bytes are a very high number (ex.5674) and the 'received' bytes are a very low number (ex. 456). What might cause it to have such a small number?