That's why laptops with a true RS232 serial port are at a premium for certain applications.<BR><BR>There are *some* USB-Serial bridges that are better than others.

Once [mlupo] figured out enough of the parallel port protocol, they were able to build a custom breakout board with the KB2040, a female parallel port, and a row of LEDs for debugging that ...

With the ascendancy of USB since the late 1990s, though, parallel port technology has faded in popularity. At this point, relatively few computers or other devices even include parallel ports anymore.