Des,

Jim's instructions in the thread for installing Active-X should help you get started. My first Active-X usage "stretched" me a bit before I got a handle on it. An alternative that has been proposed is CommTools. This is a GREAT package that I used in the FP Dos days, but be warned that this is a full-blown comm package that has a significant learning curve if you do not have some previous serial experience. MSCOMM32 is probably better for your "simple" task at hand and CommTools is more suited for high-volume, high-speed, and unusual serial requirements. Let us know if we can help!

-James

>Thanks for the reply James. I downloaded the file you suggested and I am now happy that it is possible. But, I cannot get the ActiveX control mentioned in the example (i.e. a thelephone symbol) to appear anywhere. Also my knowledge of Classes is not up to scratch and I found what looked like a very well laid out example to still be a bit confusing.
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>All I require realy is for a simple form/prg to open the port, send a string variable to the com port, and wait for a string variable back. Is this easily done or am I a long way off.
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>TIA.
>
>Des Twomey