Infrared TV control

Morning Happy Campers

I am trying to use my IR port on laptop (or a IR device via serial) to control household items via Infrared. The idea is to make it learning so it can learn the controls needed from various remote control handsets and replicate them to control devices (TV/video/stereo/lights/etc)

I understand the best bet is MSCOMM control, however I do not have much experience with this and cannot find much else relating to the subject of IR control using it.
I also understand that winsock may be a possibility, however this seems to operate on a client/server basis and I'm not sure a TV would play ball

Does anyone have any ideas or sourcecode examples on how I would do this. please post them if so.
Ta