Terminal software and serial com?

[AkAx]

My ax 50v is not here yet, but when I get it, in addition to tweaking rooting around and generaly abusing it I plan to try to use it to talk to some ( semi ) intelligent pannels. I need a regular old hyper term or some such program and hopefully a cable ( if that turns out to be a no go then a cf serial card )
I am looking to talk with things similar to GPS's in that they broadcast a continuous data stream. Anyone have any experience in this area. If this is an old hashed out topic I apologize, just any of my searches containing terminal always refer to BT programs.

impatiently waiting in Alaska

[AkAx]

OK, Sorry about the redundant question, I have found the crosslinked threads on home built serial cables and should be able to get what i need from that. I am however still needing a really simple terminal program ( free would be great ) Also I saw in the post OBDII for a truck mentioned... I will have to go with a max chip ( i have a couple allready) as i am doing an older FI truck with ALDL, anyone interested in writing a parsing program for my DATA stream ?