>AFAIK, I have all the communications parameters set correctly, but I will double check these. Are you saying that you think it should work the way I am doing it without disconnecting me and without sending any further modem (AT) commands?

Yes.

Also, a good way of checking that you have made all the correct settings is to use Start -> Programs -> Accesories -> HyperTerminal (or anything similar) and then do a single transaction by hand. If you cannot get it to work first that way, then you will find the MSCOMM32.OCX very much harder. Just my opinion.

Houston.