Question : Problem: Windows 2003 server COM port settings

I am running Windows 2003 server and have a piece of hardware that is plugged into my server. When I go into the device manager and look at the COM port settings for this piece of hardware they are different every time I reboot the server. When I change the COM port numbers so they match the COM ports in my software they stay until I reboot the server. Unfortunately with the software that we are running we have to reboot every morning and the I have to go into the device manager, COM ports, properties, port settings tab and change the port to match what is running in my software. It works fine all day until the next morning when I reboot. For example if I set the COM ports to 4, 5, 6, and 7 the next morning they will be 14, 15, 16, and 17 and I have to go and change them back to 4, 5, 6, and 7.

Answer : Problem: Windows 2003 server COM port settings

What I mentioned won't work for the Perle card.  It must be configured inside Windows dynamically.  Check the manual to see if there's any type of command line set commands that can be used for that card.  If so, create a batch file for that purpose and place it in the startup folder for all users.  

What it sounds like it's doing is not saving the manual configuration in the registry.  Alternately, it may be saving the manual configuration, but redetecting the card with each boot, and assigning it default values based on the configuration of the rest of the system.  One of the bad things about plug n pray.

Look up the command line stuff.  If you can't find something like that, we'll see if we can figure out a way to lock this thing down otherwise.