Thanks Jim. It looks like I have plenty of bedtime reading <g>.

Aaron

>Aaron,

>Before digging too deep, check http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/02/10/netserialcomm/. And Dick Grier's book that Nancy mentioned has a few examples - one here - http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/richard_grier/NETCommOCX.htm.

>>Thanks, it is certainly worth exploring as the idea of a richer client UI is appealing without any problems talking to local hardware, etc. A key factor in the process will be the need to ensure that it isn't possible to "re-direct" the client to point at a datastore not under our control, but I guess that is something that can be sorted out with multiple layers.
>>
>>I guess I am off to Amazon to search out some books<g>
>>