Cetin:

Thanks for the tip. I think that there might be 2 problems with it that I can't see how to overcome:

1. with an outside file, how to add additional names and passwords without actually opening the file and doing it manually, and;
2. more importantly, in the case where i am doing this on my own computer and not simply providing an application to someone else, what's to stop someone from simply going into the stored procedures of the database (within the project manager) and figuring out from there how to decrypt the outside file? Is there a way of "locking" the stored procedures so it cannot be opened?

Thanks for your help.

Paul