On Nov 12, 14:42, John Lawson wrote: Do you have some sort of "always-on" connection from the your local network to the Internet? Or do you use dialup? The easiest way is to use a terminal server box: net -> terminal server -> 11/44 port A suitable terminal server might be smething like a Shivaport (recent hence moderately expensive), an old Emulex Performance 4000 or Performance 2000 (if you can find a cheap one that's not died), a Racal Interlan, a Xylogics Annex, or any of several other possible brands that you might pick up secondhand. Not Windows Terminal Services or the LTSP (Linux Terminal Server Project), though -- they're for thin clients for Windows/Unix. DEC used to make a suitable box themselves. Although they're called "terminal servers", most -- including all the ones I've mentioned -- can be configured so you telnet in to them and make a serial connection out to one of the serial ports, which looks to the machine it's connected to as if a serial terminal has connected to it. On many of them, the serial port you connect to can be automatically chosen according to the port number you use in the telnet command (eg telnet tsrv01 3003 might be used to establish a connection to whatever's on serial port 3 of tsrv01). We use several of them to get remote access to the console serial lines of key switches and routers across campus, and I have a couple at home which allow my Unix machine to connect to the serial ports on various machines, including a couple of PDP-11s. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York