cant communicate to mega168 from sp3232ebcp

Im having some issue communicating with a mega168 from sp3232ebcp, im able to communicate to it with with the avr lpt1 programer just fine and i can get a good loop back from just the sp3232ebcp but when i

>avrdude -p m16
8 -P com1 -c ponyser  -U lfuse:r:-:h -U hfuse:r:-:h -F

i get

avrdude: AVR device not responding
avrdude: initialization failed, rc=-1
avrdude: AVR device initialized and ready to accept instructions
avrdude: Device signature = 0x000000
avrdude: Yikes!  Invalid device signature.
avrdude: Expected signature for ATMEGA168 is 1E 94 06

avrdude done.  Thank you.

any one have any idea why is is happening i have checked my connections and tried all combation for the tx and rx, all get same result, i cant post a photo a little later if requested, thanks for any input.