ods = createobject("dserve2.dserve") ods.dsConnect("192.168.1.99",8227,40000) lnChannel = 1 ? ods.dsOpen("g:\ssi605\data\ic\icmast",@lnChannel) && error here ? ods.dsOpen("g:\ssi605\data\ic\icmast",lnChannel) && works, but there is always the possibility && that the COM object assigns me a different channelThe vendor does not have VFP knowledge...it is written in some sort of basic. On the previous version of the DLL, I wrote a VB wrapper around it. But this version (except for this problem) works great in VFP, and I really want to cut out the middle man.