Okay, the problem is solved! Frankie you were absolutely correct abaout the problem being the HW flow control, but the solution was a lot simpler than you suggested. It turns out my modem has a couple of default factory settings, and one of them implements HW flow control - "at&f1" instead of just "at&f" - I changed my modem initialization string to "at&f1l0" and it works like a charm. My modem is very loud, so I have to use l0 in order not to wake up the neitghbors when I dial in so early in the morning. This is the first external modem I have used in many years, so it took me by surprise... Thanks for all your help - now it's back to configuring this awesome new machine of mine. Chuck
