These are the cables I used for my direct cable connection adventures. The cable the left is a homemade serial cable wired null-modem. The gray cable on the right is a parallel cable. It is a standard parallel laplink cable.
The pinouts of these cables should follow this scheme:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Null-Modem Pinouts DB-25 to DB-25 2 to 3 3 to 2 4 to 5 5 to 4 6 & 8 to 20 7 to 7 20 to 6 & 8 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Null-Modem Pinouts DB-9 to DB-9 1 & 6 to 4 2 to 3 3 to 2 4 to 1 & 6 5 to 5 7 to 8 8 to 7 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Null-Modem Pinouts DB-25 to DB-9 2 to 2 3 to 3 4 to 8 5 to 7 6 & 8 to 4 7 to 5 20 to 6 & 1 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Parallel Laplink Pinouts DB-25 1 to 1 2 to 15 3 to 13 4 to 12 5 to 10 6 to 11 7 Not Used 8 Not Used 9 Not Used 10 to 5 11 to 6 12 to 4 13 to 3 14 to 14 15 to 2 16 to 16 17 to 17 18 Not Used 19 Not Used 20 Not Used 21 Not Used 22 Not Used 23 Not Used 24 Not Used 25 to 25 Shield to Shield ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~