Thanks - even without the documentation I should have figured that out but failed miserably! In my defence all I can say is that I didn't know what those parameters were for , hence my request for the documentation. (Yip I know that wouldn't bear much scrutiny never mind stand up in court - mea culpa!) I did try google first but could only find rather flimsy entries for Socket nothing for the Socket(2) referred to in the manual. Thanks again for your help.