Rabbit/serial question

[Sullivan, Glenn]

Before I dive in feet first, I want to make sure I am on the right track.

I have a device called "Net CallerID" which is basically the US
version of
the meteor. I would like to grab the serial stream it puts out, parse it,
and then create a xAP message over an Ethernet interface. My first pass at
this will probably be a PC app, but I'd love to have it standalone on
Ethernet.

Why Ethernet? I have, or will have soon, CAT6 everywhere. It's all already
tied together, and rather than set up another network (either serial,
one-wire, or rs-485) I'd like to interface it directly to Ethernet. Also,
it is my understanding that the rabbit can support a simple web server,
which would make config/troubleshooting much easier.

And it would be good practice...

So, being a complete amateur at all of this, can you tell me if I'm on the
right track? Any tips/pointers for getting started? I'm sure that there
are tons of rabbit/serial examples on the web, and I know some of you guys
have done some xAP/Rabbit stuff, so it's just a matter of putting the stuff
together, right?

Or am I way off base?

Thanks in advance,

Glenn Sullivan, MCSE+I MCDBA
David Clark Company Inc.