Thank you Andrew, and in case anyone checks this thread, my problem was that female gendered USB to RS232 cables tend to be of the null modem type. So the solution above, using a male cable plus a gender changer provides a combination that is not of a null modem type, which is what is needed. Or else, use a female cable and add a null modem adapter, which reverts the behavior of the null modem cable back to normal.
Everything works now.