**** imagine; all of everything that is or was, can be reduced to an equation less than one inch long ! *** Okay , getting completely and thoroughly discusted w/ verio , we have gone so far as to contact bellSouth .. who , of course , tell us, they "do not support linux" and wont even send us the modem unless we have windows something on the box.. <heavy sigh> I still have a windows partition I can fudge a bit for purposes of this experiment <g> tho husband is seriously worried that w/o support we wont be able to use it .. I can't imagine why, if anyone did support an OS I was currently using , I'd have to see what was further out on the bleeding edge<g> Anyway, any users of Bell South in particular , or DSL generally care to share ? headaches , heartbreaks , willingness to suggest answers to tech support type questions .. ??? Especially if you might be willing to take this off list for private discussions, and electronic handholding and "there , there , type soothing noises for Gil ( that's the spouse <g>) TIA y'all Blonde -- j afterthought : DOS tip #17: add DEVICE=FNGRCROS.SYS to CONFIG.SYS.