The guarenteed way that this will work (eg no javascript, no browser trickery) is that you would have to regenerate the entire frameset and their contents when you reply to the user's request, making sure that your toplevel frameset doc points to a top level window target _main. This isn't too hard with CGI and perl, as you can use the same script to generate the top level frame and the individual frames by wisely using CGI parameters in the links ( for example, if there is no 'frame' param, then you should draw the toplevel frame, and make sure to set 'frame' to the specific panels when you include the source doc references. If there is a 'frame' param, you know exactly what needs to be put into those panels, and can take action appropriately. If done right, you will carry all the CGI params across the panel generation, and thus can use that information (and cookies, etc) to keep frames in-sync. The only downside to this is that your script will run N frames + 1 times, as opposed to just once, to generate the new pages.

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Dr. Michael K. Neylon - mneylon-pm@masemware.com || "You've left the lens cap of your mind on again, Pinky" - The Brain
"I can see my house from here!"
It's not what you know, but knowing how to find it if you don't know that's important