Using as Service

Using COM Port Redirector Service

This section describes how to start and use Com Port Redirector as a standard MS Windows service.

The functionality and settings of Com Port Redirector Service are just the same as of Com Port Redirector itself. Additionally, you can control the behavior of Com Port Redirector as a MS Windows service.

To manage the session of Com Port Redirector Service (e.g., to start/stop services as administrator), you can use Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Services of MS Windows.

Services overview

A service is an application type that runs in the background and is similar to UNIX daemon applications. Service applications typically provide features such as client/server applications, Web servers, database servers, and other server-based applications to users, both locally and across the network.

You can use Services to:

• Start, stop, pause, resume, or disable services on remote and local computers (including remote computers running Windows NT 4.0.). You must have the appropriate permissions to start, stop, pause, restart, and disable services.
• Manage services on local and remote computers (on remote computers running Windows XP, Windows 2000, or Windows NT 4.0 only).
• Create custom names and descriptions for services so that you can easily identify them (on computers running Windows XP or Windows 2000 only).
• Configure startup options.
• Set up recovery actions to take place if a service fails, for example, restarting the service automatically or restarting the computer (on computers running Windows XP or Windows 2000 only).
• Enable or disable services for a particular hardware profile.
• View the status and description of each service.

Services permissions

Each service has special permissions that you can grant or deny for each user or group. You can set permissions for individual services by using Security Templates.

According to MS Windows Help Manual, Services must log on to an account in order to access resources and objects on the operating system. Some services are configured by default to log on to the Local System account, which is a powerful account that has full access to the system. If a service logs on to the Local System account on a domain controller, that service has access to the entire domain. Other services are configured to log on to LocalService or NetworkService accounts, which are special built-in accounts that are similar to authenticated user accounts. These accounts have the same level of access to resources and objects as members of the Users groups. This limited access helps safeguard your system if individual services or processes are compromised.

Services running as the LocalService account access network resources as a null session with no credentials. Services running as the NetworkService account access network resources using the credentials of the machine account.