There are several of factors in database search performance, not the least of which are disk/CPU speed and amount of RAM available (searches are VERY memory-intensive). Limiting the search is possible of course (limit by date range or by narrowing your search terms). I'd guess though that your LISTSERV machine is memory-starved (probably paging like mad to get enough memory) or just slow. Not knowing what host you're talking about I can't say one way or the other. You might consider upgrading to the 1.8d release but I don't think that will speed anything up per se. Usually search slowness is due to the factors mentioned above more than anything else. Nathan