Hi Erik

Thanks for responding.

>What do you need to do with the URL? You should check out Rick Strahl's wwIPSTuff class. You can get it here in the files section, or at Rick's website at www.west-wind.com<

I want to be able to program a VFP form to access an FTP site. I obtained the evaluation FPT control from Mabry to allow my form to download selected files from an FTP server. However, when I unpacked it, I soon realised that the control only appears to deal with an FTP server you are already connected to. As I have done "diddly" with Internet stuff, I had no idea how to get to an FTP site other than some form of other class/control to allow my app to navigate to the FTP site first, and then download files with the Mabry FTP control second.

The other thing I wish to do is allow my VFP app at the remote site(s) to use the Internet to connect to Head Office and pass a data set to our central quotation engine, wait while the quotation engine processes the data and hand back the result to the remote application, and then the remote application disconnects. Therefore, I want to use the Internet as a "network" and get the necessary software to allow the communication between the "client" and "server". For this, Mabry recommended their SocketX control. I have no idea how either controls work but the ability to get to the FTP server was the starting block.

I naturally assumed that West-Wind would be the first place to start due to the close ties with VFP and the fact that I often see Rick's contributions here and in the FPA. As I really want to make my main application able to use the I*Net as a "network" (having a VFP fat client app at the remote site accessing the main site via the I*Net), West-Wind was my first port of call, before Mabry.

I directly e-mailed Rick and waited a couple of weeks with no answer. I then posted a message to Rick on the Web Connection support page asking whether he had received my e-mail. Again no answer. Therefore, I am just not sure about West-Wind after the lack of response, unless I tried to make "pre-sales" contact in the wrong way. West-Wind initially seemed the obvious choice. As I am so new to Web development with VFP, I am prepared to be completely lead by an expert/guru and pay for a VFP/Internet toolkit appropriate to my requirement.

I asked Mabry about data exchange and file transfer. They replied immediately with their SocketX and FTPX controls. And now, here I am <g>.

Any advice, suggestion or recommendations with regard to my problem would be very much appreciated. As I said, this is virgin ground for me and I need a solution pretty quickly.