One (possibly helpful) bit of advice from experience: Hyperterminal is an awful piece of software. Download and use a real terminal program, and you'll save a lot of time and effort. I use Van Dyke Technologies CRT, which is a damn good program which supports serial, ethernet, and virtually every protocol you've ever heard of.

Stable and easy to use, I can really recommend it. Hyperterminal on the other hand... Gahh!

Patrick.

Opinions expressed in this email may contain up to 42% water by weight, and are mine. All mine.
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Experience is what you get just after it would have helped...