Foo - 2 more cable questions, probably pretty quick

I am making a cable with a female serial on one end, and an RJ11 connector on the other. THe cable needs the wires to be matched up properly.
My first question:
Are the functions of pins on the 9 pin serial port consistent with manufacturers? Will pin 2 on my Gateway be the same as my friends Sony? Both are RS232. I would assume so, but just wanted to make sure. If not, will gateway be able to tell me which pin is which?

So my phone connector has 6 pins (but only 3 cables because 3 pins are not used). Pin 5 of the 6 needs to be "tx"
Pin 2 needs to be "rx"
Pin 3 needs to be "gnd". Ground I assume.

But pinouts I see do not refer to pins as "tx" or "rx". Can somebody give some some insight on what is going on?

here you go: http://www.aggsoft.com/rs232-pinout-cable/pinout-and-signal.htm

Also be aware of DTE vs. DCE differences in equipment as you need to match up the TX-transmit line of one with the RX-receive of the other (crossover) or TX->TX and RD->RD (straight-thru) depending upon what the configuration of the devices are. Why are you building a cable, doesn't it come with one? Or just buy one, they're a dime-a-dozen from off-the-shelf sources...

EDIT: correction, $12 apiece from amazon (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000051099/nextag-ce-20/ref=nosim). It almost doesn't matter how you wire it because if you have it connected the same way with the 2nd adaptor, then the DB-9 pins end up going straight through.

http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/B000051099.01-A3HXWER1CPLV7Q._AA200_SCLZZZZZZZ_V34669490_.jpg

SO I guess it IS that simple. Thanks Danno :)

SO I guess it IS that simple. Thanks Danno :)You're welcome. But it may not be that simple. Refer to the manual for the motor-driver and see if it requires crossover or straight-thru cabling. And handshaking complicates matter as well. You have hardware (RTS-CTS), and software XON/XOFF handshaking. There are also oddball cases of no-handshaking and transparent XON/XOFF as well. So you'll need to verify what's used in your equipment and wire the cable accordingly. :)

it does not mention either one. Here is the diagram though, does the circle mean crossover?
http://home.comcast.net/~phantomcow3/j5.JPG

Ok, that's close. Both grounds (5) should be connected to each other. Then crossover is (2) <--> (3) and (3) <--> (2). This then requires XON/XOFF software flow-control. Hopefully the controller doesn't require those characters for any kind of signalling.

When you say "both grounds", what do you mean? I have the cable corresponding to pin 5 connected, that's the only ground I see.

Can you explain crossover a bit? Is this what the ring represents? How should I actually orient the cable?

The manual indicates this as well:
Baud rate- 19200
RS-232 Full Duplex
UART, 1 start bit, 8 data bits, even parity bit, one stop bit, no flow control.

I just enabled these settings from my device manager (on windows XP).

What about this UART? Is this a default setting?

:( I was doing it wrong the whole time. Because I have the option for an RS485, I no longer have hte option to connect through a phone jack. I have to connect through the 26 pin connection. Maybe I will wake up and find this thing stuffed in my stocking --- CONFIGURED.