> man 5 hosts_access ... snip ... An expression of the form 'n.n.n.n/m.m.m.m´ is interpreted as a 'net/mask´ pair. An IPv4 host address is matched if 'net´ is equal to the bitwise AND of the address and the 'mask´. For example, the net/mask pattern '131.155.72.0/255.255.254.0´ matches every address in the range '131.155.72.0´ through '131.155.73.255´. Is there any reason why it must be written out as: 131.155.72.0/255.255.254.0 ... as opposed to using the shorter version: 131.155.72.0/23 -- A -- W | It's not a bug - it's an undocumented feature. +-------------------------------------------------------------------- Ashley M. Kirchner <mailto:ashley@xxxxxxxxxx> . 303.442.6410 x130 IT Director / SysAdmin / Websmith . 800.441.3873 x130 Photo Craft Imaging . 3550 Arapahoe Ave. #6 http://www.pcraft.com ..... . . . Boulder, CO 80303, U.S.A.