Actually it’s several older pieces of scientific equipment (Gas Chromatographs, and a Datalogger) that require the interface.
I know I said software, but it’s actually the hardware I’m attaching too. Much expenditure involved with the hardware, so the laptop is a cheap part of the system as a whole.
Thanks for help. Much info found in the collective.
Does it need to be a laptop? If you had a small desktop you could install an RS-232 card (I think). Not sure if new operating systems would recognize it.