in a 25 way you can get away with just wiring 2, 3 & 7 and in 9 way you can just wire 2, 3 & 5.

(txd, rxd & gnd and rxd, txd and gnd)

this can get you out of a hole if you are in a rush and cant be arsed to wire the whole lot using serial cable.

its particularly useful if you have any 25 or 9 way to rj-45 connectors lying around as you can just do it using these and cat5e patch leads.

bit of a bodge, but a quick fix that has helped me out from time to time.