HyperTerminal is a program that you can use to connect to other computers, Telnet sites, bulletin board systems (BBSs), online services, and host computers, using either your modem, a null modem cable or Ethernet connection.
But My main usage of Hyperterminal is to communicate with hardware through local (virtual )COM ports. I suppose it is removed in Vista for some reason.
Are there any other tools that functions similar to Hyperterminal?
[I am curious to know even if it is not for vista]
Here are two:
Tera Term (Pro) is a free software terminal emulator (communication program) for MS-Windows. It supports VT100 emulation, telnet connection, serial port connection, and so on.
Kermit 95: Internet and serial communications for Microsoft Windows® 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT (4.0 and later), Windows 2000, Windows XP, and IBM OS/2 from the Kermit Project at Columbia University, offers you text-based terminal connections to Unix, VMS, and many other kinds of hosts, allowing you to interact directly with their shells and applications, to transfer files, and, if desired, to automate interactions and file transfers with its built-in platform- and transport-independent scripting language.
I had the same problem trying to connect to an RFID device over RS323/serial and found SerialMonitor.
There are two links to that application. A free version that I found here (and that's the one I used and it works with Vista): http://www.softhypermarket.com/Free-Serial-Port-Monitor-download_29681.html
But if you follow the email address to the main site, there are a couple of versions of the tool. They aren't free, but they seem to have more features than the one I used.
http://www.hhdsoftware.com/Products/home/serial-monitor.html
Hope that helps.
Here is a better tool specificaly designed to test serial devices: http://www.caerustech.com/UDT.php . You can save settings and commands for various devices - I use it often at work.