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The Communications port (or COM port) is a serial port on the computer, usually USB, but can be a 9-pin RS232 connector.

Instruments which have a serial connection typically use RS422 or RS485, therefore a convertor is required to convert, for example, USB to RS485.

 

Or sometimes special cards may be used that have RS422 or RS485 ports.

 

Windows identifies ports with the term COM1, COM2 etc. SpecView supports by default up to COM9, but it is possible to increase this limit up to 40 by setting MaxPorts.

 

Communication Ports are a hardware item in the computer and should not be confused with Communications Protocol.

A Communications Protocol can be thought of as the 'language' used by the instrument to send/receive values to/from the computer.