I spent a few hours this evening perfecting my soldering skills. I’ve created two ‘Y’ cables that split Cat5 cable into both ethernet and serial comms. I have one end plugged into my server and the other end is currently in my office. Between the two locations is the normal Cat5 wiring with no modifications. The serial connection is removed before the cable hits the switch and nobody notices.
Once I’ve tidied it all up I’ll do a writeup. I’m also trying to connect my Mac Classic to the rest of my house using a serial cable. Cleverly I’ve made a Mini-DIN 8 to DB9 cable and wired it backwards. It spews junk to my terminal and that’s about it. I’ll be fixing that tomorrow then.