It all depends on what you want your process to timeout for. If you want to protect against a hung connection, then a much better method is to download with wget rather than lynx. wget has just such a timeout option. -- Dave Mielke | 2213 Fox Crescent | I believe that the Bible is the Phone: 1-613-726-0014 | Ottawa, Ontario | Word of God. Please contact me EMail: dave@mielke.cc | Canada K2A 1H7 | if you're concerned about Hell.