This USB to Serial converter allows you to connect a RS-232 serial device such as a modem to a USB port on your Desktop or Laptop PC.

Arrived DOA. I also don't understand why I need to install a driver for a cable, but I installed the included driver and ever tried other drivers reccomeded by Vista and none worked. Would not work with a variety of drivers on XP either. Not worth shipping back for $11.00.

This is a good solid adapter. I am using these in a manufacturing plant and they stand up to heat, humidity, and vibration. The pig tail is just the right length.

Installation - you must first download the driver package. The company website, trendnet, has the most current driver available there. Install the driver package. Then plug in the adapter. It doesn't matter what OS you are using, follow those steps and you will have no problems getting this to work. The drivers are fine from Windows ME all the way up to Win 7. I am using this adapter on XP, 2000, and 7 (32 bit).

Remember that if you pull out the USB end of the adapter and plug it into a DIFFERENT USB port on your computer (or in a hub) the adapter WILL be assigned a new COM port. That seems counter-intuitive and can be the reason a device might work fine, but then mysteriously stop working the next time. Each USB port on your computer is a different hardware address, and Windows understands it to be a whole new device, so it assigns the adapter a new com port number.

The best way to troubleshoot the thing is to download a copy of Tera Terminal. It is a highly recommended program for Windows 7 (HyperTerminal is not included in Win7). Tera Terminal allows you to test the serial connection. After using both for a while now, Tera Term is a much better program and much easier to use than HyperTerminal. I will switch even for non Win7 computers.

There is another USB to Serial adapter, [...] USB-to-RS232 Serial DB9 Adapter Cable (ICUSB232) that uses exactly the same driver. In my estimation, they both use exactly the same chip inside the adapter. This particular adapter comes in more modern packaging, the USB cable is a bit longer - around 12 inches, and it looks better. After my testing on both of these, you could use them interchangeably, shop based on price.

I use this to get serial data from an old system onto a modern computer system for logging purposes. Works as designed, no issues found.

I bought this cable for a very specific need: To be able to connect a 9-pin serial cable for a Pronto remote control to my Mac for use with software running in a Windows virtual machine. Sounds like a lot of layers with low odds of working, but it actually does. Now, that said, the software on Windows had one or two failures trying to access or locate a device that was connected to this cable. But, a second attempt worked. So, does it work flawlessly in this application? No, but it works 95%, and where this application, for me, is very low usage, I am fine with that.

Bottom line is that the cable works well enough in my complex environment. In a "simpler" environment (e.g. without the virtual machine) it will likely work "flawlessly".

I opened the package and easily installed the usb to serial cable onto my computer and it is still working. no bugs or viruses or anything bad happening. So... Good to go.