> I have what is essentially a "USB->Serial" - "Serial->USB" Cable. > Ethernet is *NOT* involved - though there are topological similarities.
I don't have factual knowledge of what you have, indeed, but you said: I have purchased a USB Host-Host cable based on the PL-25A1 chipset. While this probably doesn't use Ethernet internally, I believe it will behave (seen from both machines) exactly as two USB-to-Ethernet adapters connected via an Ethernet cable. For example, the "cable" will typically appear as a "usb0" network interface (as is the case for USB-to-ethernet adapters) rather than as a /dev/ttyUSB0 serial device. So I think your cable is much less "Serial" than you think. Stefan