Ok, I finally got it to work. I appreciate the help everyone has given me. Beside the setting "9600,n,8,1", I needed to set

DTREnable = .F.
RThreshold = 1
SThreshold = 1

I had tried every combo with RThreshold and SThreshold along with some other properties, but I never changed DTREnable which defaults to true. I was actually able to get the framing error using the bitrate form, but after I changed the settings to reflect the proper baud rate and etc it worked fine. So I just paused using the debugger and checked all the properties of the mscomm object. Once I made my settings identical, it worked like a charm. Wouldn't you know it, one property caused me 3 days of heartache. Thanks for the help again. Without that bitrate form, I would probably still be lost.