I followed Jamie Young's instructions and it worked. However here is something I felt to add:
1) In order for the Java communications API to find ports the file
javax.comm.properties must be in the correct place. The preferred location
is in <jdk>/lib. In case you are using just a JRE installation, then it should be in <jre>/lib directory.
2) The win32comm.dll should be placed in the <jdk>/bin directory (as suggested by Jamie) or in case you
just have a JRE installation then it should be placed in the <jre>/bin directory.