Newbie- USB question

[Hylan]

Background: I'm not a formal programmer by any means but am trying to learn some. I've done some firmware programming using PicBasic Pro. I've got a device with a USB B output and was originally trying to go straight from it to another client device (audio device with a serial db9 input). I never could get it to work. I'm using the HSEROUT command in PicBasic. They both work fine when I connect to a host and use hyperterminal to see and send signals.

It appears that I can't go from client to client and will have to put a host in the middle. So my thought is to use something like a NorhTec Micro Client JrDx with a simple program running on it.

So this is where I'm investigaing Java and downloaded NetBeans. I'd like to write a program that reads from one port (usb) and then writes whatever was read to another port (options would be good here, usb, serial db9 out, ethernet). I have a couple applications where I could use this and the input (usb) is the same but there are different outputs required (ethernet, serial db9).

So I have 2 questions:
1. Best place to start to learn about Netbeans and Java programming?
2. Sample code to read and write to usb ports.

Thank you