Good afternoon folks. Some months ago, lusting after a laptop with a complete keyboard, that is, one with a full number pad, six-pack and all, I bought an HP7010, an altogether delightful machine with every conceivable bell and whistle. If a bit on the heavy side, a compromise between laptop and desktop, it does everything I want, everything, that is but provide me with a serial port for my braille display. Fortunately, the Jaws jfw.ini file provides for editing the number of the com port used for braille displays, I able to change it to com6. As John mentioned, you must go into the control pannel, to hardware under system, then to the device manager to find out what com port number your converter has been assigned. While, in principle, John is correct about being able to reset the port number, with my machine, at least, chucked full of peripherals, every port but com2 was busy, including com4. Of course, if com4 is busy, then com2 cannot be used without causing a potential conflict, hence the assignment by the xp operating system of port number from 5 to 8, depending upon which u s b connector you plug your converter into. The nine-pin serial side of the cable should have circuitry inside that allows the operating system to recognize its existence. The device, whether one from Radio Shack or somewhere else, should have a cd with the drivers, xp not likely to know much about the device. In any event, if your laptop shows com 1 to be free but come3 used, do not select 1. Likewise, if com2 is shown free but 4 is not, do not select com2. It is not accidental that the com port number that is likely to show up when searched for is above 4. Unfortunately, with the A R C program for the TS2000, you have only com ports 1 to 4 to choose from, nothing higher. I learned, to my dismay, that, despite my lovely new heavy laptop, I could not talk to my TS2000 with it. Good luck. Jerry, v e 3 q s o [log in to unmask]