The phonenet adaptor takes those TX/RX pairs and combines them into a single TX/RX pair. It's rather a simple schematic to look at, yet it works perfectly.

I think I'm going to see if wiring that port up RS232 fashion works -- if it does then I kinda know that this might work out. I'm just looking for a bunch of crap to go over the lines. Then I can actually figure out what all that means. I'm also hoping the INside Appletalk book will help too -- it better for $36

edit: it didnt make sense