Hi Neil,
PMFJI (again), but I can think of one very good reason not use the the OpenComm(), CloseComm(), etc. The reason is that they are obsolete functions, and not supported by Win32.
The options are the MSComm ActiveX control or accessing the Win32 API directly via CreateFile(), WriteFile(), CloseHandle(), and FlushFileBuffers(). Article number Q148857 in the Microsoft Knowledge Base gives an example for how to dial a phone number from MS Access. Having looked at the article, it appears that translating this to VFP wouldn't be terribly difficult.
George
Ubi caritas et amor, deus ibi est