OFF TOPIC - OBDII scanners for my nissan sentra

[robert weinberg]

exciting topic, i know ;-)

when my audi 200q20v throws a code, i just suck up to my friend and have him run 
them with his vagcom software...

but my daily driver 1998 nissan sentra's check engine light came on. the 
mechanic up the street wanted an hour labor ($98) to run the codes. ummm, no 
thanks....

so, there are a bunch of OBDII scanners on ebay for like $30-$50. they look 
sorta hokey though. anyone tried them? also, is there a decent PC (or mac) based 
program with the appropriate connectors (like for the ecu's serial port) that 
works well?

i've heard that there's a chance vag com will still read OBDII codes from other 
manufactures besides audi and VW, when it's run in OBDII mode - but this is all 
greek to me.

thanks,
Robby