The output of various Internet (probing) tools is sometimes a matter of who's platform you are using, and always a matter of education and experience. Thus, not being able to PING an e-mail host address is not always an invalid address; not seeing a TRACEROUTE response at a given router is NOT always a non-functional router (or circuit). I am by no means an expert in this area, just a 1/2-way experienced user. -- co-owner: INFOSYS, TQM-L, CPARK-L, ERAPPA-L, JANITORS, LDBASE-L, et -L URL:mailto:[log in to unmask] "Never confuse the messenger with the message"