Serial port recognition in visual basic

cheeeseyfry

I'm very, very new to basic stamps. I've been looking at forum posts that describe how to create an array of serial ports in visual basic from where the user can choose a serial port to transmit data to the stamp. However, both my and my friend's computers have serial ports, but the visual basic program can't find any. It's important to note that this is without anything plugged into the serial ports. Can a serial port only be recognized if something is plugged into it? Please help.