GPS not found by applications, output ok on Telnet

Thanks, but all baud rates work (it is autobaud, being a virtual port), and there is no access to any serial port settings in the device mgr.

Can you get the data in hyper terminal?
My first step will be to open hyper terminal and then set the Comm Port to 7 and trying by changing the baud rate in hyper terminal until I get the data on screen. Then note this baud rate and set this setting in the desired program instead of using autobaud.

Yes, I get data in Hyperterminal, at any baud rate (virtual port adapts automatically).
A sample of the data is included above labelled sample NMEA data (actually not from hyperteminal, but from a different program)

Which programs are you using for GPS data reception? Do these programs allow for entering CommPort settings rather then Auto detect?
Also I think there is some problem with the strings. Specially the GPGSA and GPGGA. Is this some error while you were copying/pasting or is this the actual data coming from the GPS? If this is the data coming from the GPS then it is not standard NMEA string. The GPGSA terminates unexpectedly without a carriage return and line feed. Can you please give a sample from hyper terminal as well to be absolute sure...

$GPGSA,A$GPGGA,143945.00,3247.429558,N,03459.265575,E,1,04,0.5,295.0,M,,,,*36
,3,11,14,19,32,,,,,,,,,1.1,0.5,1.0*3A
$GPGGA,143946.00,3247.429558,N,03459.265575,E,1,04,0.5,295.0,M,,,,*35
                                              

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I can set a specific baud rate, and it works too, 19200, 4800 and 38400

No, I think the missing line feeds was an artifact of the capture I did:

Here it is from Hyperterminal:
$GPRMC,094404.00,A,3247.444572,N,03459.272530,E,000.0,000.0,261208,,,A*50
$GPGSV,2,1,08,21,72,290,22,29,53,064,29,24,48,038,14,18,38,172,*79
$GPGSV,2,2,08,16,30,316,,05,14,156,,10,13,040,,22,10,194,*79
$GPGSA,A,3,21,29,,,,,,,,,,,11.2,5.0,10.0*3C
$GPGGA,094405.00,3247.444572,N,03459.272530,E,1,02,5.0,359.0,M,,,,*37
$GPRMC,094405.00,A,3247.444572,N,03459.272530,E,000.0,000.0,261208,,,A*51
$GPGSV,2,1,08,21,72,290,21,29,53,064,30,24,48,038,13,18,38,172,*75
$GPGSV,2,2,08,16,30,316,,05,14,156,,10,13,040,,22,10,194,*79
$GPGSA,A,3,21,29,,,,,,,,,,,11.2,5.0,10.0*3C
$GPGGA,094406.00,3247.444572,N,03459.272530,E,1,02,5.0,359.0,M,,,,*34
$GPRMC,094406.00,A,3247.444572,N,03459.272530,E,000.0,000.0,261208,,,A*52
$GPGSV,2,1,08,21,72,290,24,29,53,064,29,24,48,038,13,18,38,172,*78
$GPGSV,2,2,08,16,30,316,,05,14,156,,10,13,040,,22,10,194,*79
$GPGSA,A,3,21,29,,,,,,,,,,,11.2,5.0,10.0*3C

Programs I care about are PFMS (pocketfms.com) and Jeppesen Flight Deck.
For testing, I have also used GPSDIAG from Cnet, which reads it ok, and gets a fix !
http://www.download.com/GPSDiag/3000-2130_4-10055902.html