>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

Hi from another James,

Another alternative is http://www.jspayne.com/io/home.html , a bit lower in cost. His sample Demo app is an excellent troubleshooter for the hardware end if you do your own cabling and such. $70 USD is very reasonable for the control. His VB sample code is readily convertable to VFP.