It (the # sign being reserved) probably has something to do with the fact that the # sign is used for target location in a web page when part of a URL:
ie: http://www.home.com/list_of_products.htm#third_product

>Thanks. But I found that if I URLencoded the string I was OK. Evidently, the # sign is a reserved character in IE.
>
>But now everything is doing just fine.
>
>Alan