Hello, I have a strange problem. I have a bot that I control through a serial port by sending text strings through the port and parsing the string on the pic board. It has a rs232 interface so that works well. Im trying to use my laptop to control it now, but i dont have a serial port on it, I do have a parallel port and a converter that goes from parallel to serial. How can I send text strings accross the parallel port to the pic board and recieve text back from it. Im using VB.Net, but I have no problem going to c++ if thats simpler. Thanks for all help. Also I have free usb ports so if there is a converter from usb to serial and its simpler to do i can do that. Thanks for all the advise.