Ok guys I've read the serial how-to. In fact I've done some serial programming to drive modems. But I've encountered a situation where traditional serial programming would be too complex to solve this problem.

I have this pabx which outputs several CDRs (Call data records - which contain originating calling number, destination calling number, call duration, etc...) and these CDRs can be accessed from a computer's serial port. So if I use, say, minicom, I can enter a control code and get all the CDRs in real time.

My problem? I want to be able to discriminate some of the destination calling numbers - for instance, CDRs mapped to callers dialling to number 123456 are filtered for further processing, whilst the other CDRs are left untouched. The concept is similar to a breakout box.

So in essence I want either an open source breakout box software (I got a breakout box software but i do not have its source available) or else another technique which hasn't crossed my mind. I'm still doubtful whether to use a windows or a linux platform.

Thanks in advance.