What's this computer lead used for

Wig

That looks like a parallel port male and female with a serial port female - the females are next to each other.

Any ideas?

espresso

It looks like a 25 way male to either a 25 way female or a 9 way female adaptor lead.

krysus

It could be one of these - Serial Loopback Tester. Not sure what you'd use one for, maybe testing your serial port :rolleyes:

http://www.trianglecables.com/serlooptesdb.html

Not sure why there's two though...

System

It's a null modem cable for a device that has a 25 way D connection. The other end is for the computer. Computers used to have either 9 way or 25 way serial connectors hence the 2 types.

ManAtHome

I'd go for the serial transfer cable as well - look like a cheapy Laplink-type cable http://www.gizmobyte.com/product-images/Accessories/Laplink_Serial.jpg

[edit] - late thought, could be a PC to modem cable as well (as !!!!!! said, we had a mix of 25-pin and 9-pin serial ports for quite a long time).