I have been able to maintain a serial port connection over a printer
cable (null modem) to my iMac running OS9. The connection goes from a
PowerMac 6500/300 trhough the printer cable to a Compucable iDock
(they were real cheap at the local Sears) connected to the iMac. I
have rebooted and even installed stuff using this connection but over
time it seems to vanish and I can't figure out how to diagnose it.

During installation it seems to be /dev/ttya which ceases to exist or
is called something else or simply gets erased over time. I'm not
quite sure where to begin. I can get a telnet connection and I still
have some network configurations issues. I don't like to bring the
6500 machine down because it is my mail server.

How can I detect and diagnose the source of my problems? Does anyone
have any idea what happened?

-- 
Josh Kuperman
josh@ssimr.com
http://www.ssimr.com