Terminal Servers
Flexible, Low Cost Terminal Server Solutions
Terminal servers were originally designed to allow RS232 serial devices (such as "green screen" text terminals, modems and serial printers) to connect to networked resources like mainframes. With a terminal server the user connection is established going in to a serial port, and then out to the network port to the mainframe.
Terminal Servers evolved over time into Console Servers. Console servers and terminal servers both provide a number of serial ports which are then connected to the serial ports of other equipment.
Functionally both console and terminal servers are the same.