Thanks to all who responded. I now have a great deal of information that I can take back to my partner, and from there to our client, to explain why XOR encryption is a toy. I don't know if it's possible to set up an encrypted channel using VB but I'll look into it.

And I don't mind the -- on the posts that got away from Perl. I have a client, and I need to find out as much as I can. If the thread wanders away from Perl (from which I make my living) and I end up with two of the Worst Nodes of the day, so be it.

Frankly, there's no place on the Internet I'd rather be than right here. (It's the most fun I've had since 94/95 when we battled to support OS/2 in the Canopus form on CompuServe, in the period leading up to the release of Windows 95.)

Cheers.

--t. alex

"Nyahhh (munch, munch) What's up, Doc?" --Bugs Bunny