> (I ask because I need to buy a couple of UPSs 
> >soon, and the serial cable used by the UPSs is, to say the least, 
> >funky.)

All those I bought new came with a proper cable ;-)

Anyway, IIRC nullmodem.com had the proper pinout when I needed to make myself
one (for a sun with two serial ports on one connector).

> The APC software allows the possibility of a "master" UPS system.

I use this with ups-nut; apcupsd had some network mode, but configuration
was so ... strange I stoped trying.

Sorry, no idea if the linux usb support for any of those packets works with
NetBSD - if not it should be easy to fix, I suppose.

Martin