>>>I have a class built that communicates with a hardware device. This device may be connect via serial, ethernet or ftp. The properties of the class set all the necessary parameters of the device... tcpip/serial/ftp, address, port, bps, parity, etc. The class is instantiated, properties are set (based on settings stored in a device table) and the communication takes place. This works great. But occasionally after the class is instantiated and the properties are set, the device needs to be changed to a different one. This requires access to the device table. I don't like the idea of tying the class to a table to query it. I have don't have any ideas on how to keep this class abstract yet still query the data in my device table. Any ideas?
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>>What about using a Factory to return proper instance of your Communication class?
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>I'm not familiar with using a factory. Can you point me to some info?

Joe,

You may start from http://fox.wikis.com/wc.dll?Wiki~AbstractFactory~SoftwareEng