JoshuaGrey, You can just buy a dedicated RS232 pci card for your computer. It just plugs into one of the pci expansion slots on the PC and works perfectly so there is no need to buy a new computer. Theres loads on that famous online auction site.

I've had the same card in all of my PCs for the last 10 years or so. If anything its something that the sites sponsors should look at supplying as i'm sure the demand would be there. USB to serial convertor leads have always been a complete waste of time for flashing any STB.

You can also get PCMCIA to RS232 adapters which also work fine in laptops.