From: Digest To: "OS/2GenAu Digest" Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003 00:04:04 EST-10EDT,10,-1,0,7200,3,-1,0,7200,3600 Subject: [os2genau_digest] No. 599 Reply-To: X-List-Unsubscribe: www.os2site.com/list/ ************************************************** Tuesday 22 April 2003 Number 599 ************************************************** Subjects for today 1 Re: DB/2 files : Ed Durrant 2 Re: DB/2 files : Daryl Pilkington" 3 Help across the Tasman : brianb at kdfisher dot com dot au 4 Re: Troubles : 5 Re: Troubles : Robert Traynor (BobT)" 6 Re: Troubles : Paul Smedley" 7 Re: DB/2 files : Ed Durrant 8 Describe V4 - 1993 : Peter 9 Re: Troubles : Ed Durrant 10 Re: DB/2 files : Chris Graham [WarpSpeed]" 11 Re: DB/2 files : Chris Graham [WarpSpeed]" 12 The smoke escaped : bob 13 Re: The smoke escaped : Paul Smedley" 14 Re: The smoke escaped : bob 15 Re: The smoke escaped : Paul Smedley" 16 Re: The smoke escaped : bob **= Email 1 ==========================** Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2003 06:27:56 +1000 From: Ed Durrant Subject: Re: DB/2 files John Angelico wrote: > The other alternative is to simply reference the database across the > network. Is this possible? If so, all copying and backing up/restoring is > avoided, at the cost of slight performance loss across the network. > No not possible as I'm replacing a system - hence the need to transfer the DB. The DBA prefers to export and import rather than backup. The DB structure is well documented and it gives him a chance to do a cleanup (ie some DBs are now obsolete and no longer used). Thanks for the comments. Cheers/2 Ed. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- **= Email 2 ==========================** Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2003 10:00:25 +1000 (EST) From: "Daryl Pilkington" Subject: Re: DB/2 files Hi Ed, Yes it is possible, since the target & source OS are the same. HOWEVER, this is definitely not supported or recommended by the IBM DB2 Gurus in Toronto, the question has been asked before. I've done it successfully with v2.1, but I wouldn't risk it on something important. Note it is not as simple as just copying the node directory, enough said. As you mentioned, the DBA would prefer import/export to allow cleaning up of things. How long would this take in practice? So what if it takes overnight, you don't have to watch it. The DB2 load command will be quicker than import for the restoration of the data. Your DBA should know about load vs import. Obviously, import/export is very i/o intensive. DB2 can be tuned, on-the-fly, to optimise a once-off export/import operation. How about also using a x-over cable to the replacement server? You'd get a full-duplex 100MB, (or is it token-ring), making the transfer fast. If its token-ring, you'll need to get a MAU as well. If HDD storage is limited in the replacement server, temporarily put a large, fast IDE drive in for the target directory for the export task. Can I lend you my DB v5 book written by Don Chamberlin a member of the DB2 development team at IBM Almaden Research Center. Lend this to your DBA. On Mon, 21 Apr 2003 19:47:02 +1000, Ed Durrant wrote: >Can anyone tell me if it's possible to simply copy a complete OS/2 DB2 >(v 5.x) database from one machine to another without having to export >(or backup) and re-import the data ? > >Avoiding the export/import step will save me quite some time as we're >talking of around 10-12 GB of data ! > Regards, Daryl Pilkington //// The PC-Therapist, Business Computing Integration O OS/2 Warp, Redhat Linux, DB2 IBM Certified Systems Expert email: darylp at pc-therapist dot com dot au Mob: 0425-251-300 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- **= Email 3 ==========================** Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2003 13:05:25 +1030 From: brianb at kdfisher dot com dot au Subject: Help across the Tasman Hi all OS2GENAU, The following is a copy of an email from a member of the Wellington (New Zealand) OS/2 Users Group. There have been a few posts to his message on their group. In the interest of keeping a fellow OS/2 user going would any of our group members care to offer him any advise? Sent responses to their group at:- wgtn-os2-ug-l at inisant.actrix.gen.nz Thanks all. +++++++++++++++++++++++++ Original message follows +++++++++++++++++++++++++ Hi all Well, it look like I might very reluctantly have to say goodbye to OS/2. I have spent many hours this year - including most of Easter - trying to get my main home system up and running. I'm now at the end of my tether - I simply can't afford not to have this system going - and I can't afford to spend many more hours vainly struggling with it. If I can't get this solved then over Anzac I will sadly install this system with Windoze only. If any of you good folk have any bright ideas, I would very much appreciate it - I really don't want to lose it. I know my PC works - I have done a simple install onto a single C partition and everything is sweetness and light. My problem is to do with the 1024 cylinder limits, and the constraints that imposes on managing my hard disks, given the systems I need. I have two drives - a 20Mb IDE and an 18Gb SCSI. The 20Gb IDE is drive 1. It has boot manager, followed by two primary partitions - one for W2K and one for W98. The rest of the disk is over 1024 cylinders, and is in two partitions - FAT32 for Win32 apps, and HPFS for OS/2 apps. My SCSI drive has a 2Gb FAT drive for some data shared between OS/2 and W32. I then have the OS/2 system under the 1024 cylinder limit, with the rest of the disk being a large area for storage - photos, sound, temporary storage for writing CD's etc. This will be FAT32 to be available under both OS/2 and W32. Onto this I have tried three ways of installing Warp. The first was following articles in September and October 2000 VOICE newsletters on large disks and FAT32. Couldn't get there. The second was using that Update CD program that was advised through this list recently. Personally that was my number one hope - the idea of being able to install from a CD with all the updates I want on it is very appealing. It looked good - but would not create the RAW file. The third was to make all the partitions HPFS. I figured that couldn't fail. But when I get to the first reboot it tells me it can't access the disk. I tried rebooting to the basic install on C and editing the config.sys, copying dani files across, etc - but no joy. I don't know of any other way to get this system running - I hate the thought of using Windoze as my main system, but unless someone an give me a simple way of overcoming this situation, I'm sunk. Thanks -- Phil ----------- To unsubscribe yourself from this list, send the following message to majormajor at inisant.jsw.gen.nz unsubscribe wgtn-os2-ug-l end ----------------------------------------- Brian Butler System Administrator brianb at kdfisher dot com dot au ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- **= Email 4 ==========================** Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2003 15:57:52 -1000 From: Subject: Re: Troubles On Fri, 18 Apr 2003 19:12:42 -1000, djn at peninsula.hotkey dot net dot au wrote: Hi again I picked up the D-Link DFE-530TX+ Card this morning and have been slowly going ga-ga ever since. The disk that came with the card didn't have OS/2 drivers, but I had already downloaded the driver pack from D-Link's web site. Unfortunately they would not install. The Diagnostic program on the supplied disk (DOS Program) finds the card and gets it's address and IRQ etc. tests the RAMN and EPROM etc but bombs out when trying to test the network. The diagnostic program that came with the device drivers from the web site couldn't find the card. Anyway I found the Sniffle program which checks the *.nif file for consistency and validity. There was a missing underscore on the default MEDIA value. I put it in and viola, the driver installed, and I was cooking on gas. Rebooted the system and now the system can't find a PCI fast ethernet adapter and so doesn't install the device drivers, and no network. So once again to the mpts utilities and ran the os2sniff. It finds the card and identifies it as an unknown PCI ethernet adapter, but of course the driver info is missing. I've tried rebooting with full hardware detection with no luck. I can only assume that there is something wrong in the driver. I can't see how it was tested as it has obviously not been test installed onto an OS/2 computer. The device driver info is DLKRTS.os2 37,330 27/9/1999 DLKrts.nif 2,125 9/8/1999 PROTOCOL.INI 58 13/7/1999 Once again, any help gratefully received Regards Dennis ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- **= Email 5 ==========================** Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2003 16:39:44 +1000 From: "Robert Traynor (BobT)" Subject: Re: Troubles Dennis, _IF_ your motherboard supports it, set the IRQ in the PCI slot to a manually selected IRQ. All MY IRQs are manually selected in my (Asus) motherboard bios and I NEVER have a problem with ANY OS - hardware wise. In the olden days of ISA cards the IRQ was set on the network card itself. In these modern (better??) days the IRQ is either handled by the Motherboard itself (if the BIOS PCI part is set to AUTO) or manually selected IF your particular motherboard even has that option.! Some don't. Good ones do. You might also try entering the NICs address into the MPTS settings and you can put the IRQ in there too. If you do put the address of the card in, keep in mind that the dos or windows utilities usually display the numbers with a minus sign between each pair of characters. Mine is displayed as "00-60-08-BF-41-FB" but it is entered as "006008BF41FB". Hope this helps. Regards, Robert Traynor (BobT). 22 April 2003 16:34 On Tue, 22 Apr 2003 15:57:52 -1000, djn at peninsula.hotkey dot net dot au wrote: > On Fri, 18 Apr 2003 19:12:42 -1000, djn at peninsula.hotkey dot net dot au wrote: > Hi again > > I picked up the D-Link DFE-530TX+ Card this morning and have been slowly > going ga-ga ever since. > > The disk that came with the card didn't have OS/2 drivers, but I had > already downloaded the driver pack from D-Link's web site. > > Unfortunately they would not install. > > The Diagnostic program on the supplied disk (DOS Program) finds the card > and gets it's address and IRQ etc. tests the RAMN and EPROM etc but > bombs out when trying to test the network. > > The diagnostic program that came with the device drivers from the web > site couldn't find the card. > > Anyway I found the Sniffle program which checks the *.nif file for > consistency and validity. There was a missing underscore on the default > MEDIA value. I put it in and viola, the driver installed, and I was > cooking on gas. > > Rebooted the system and now the system can't find a PCI fast ethernet > adapter and so doesn't install the device drivers, and no network. > > So once again to the mpts utilities and ran the os2sniff. It finds the > card and identifies it as an unknown PCI ethernet adapter, but of course > the driver info is missing. > > I've tried rebooting with full hardware detection with no luck. > > I can only assume that there is something wrong in the driver. I can't > see how it was tested as it has obviously not been test installed onto > an OS/2 computer. > > The device driver info is > DLKRTS.os2 37,330 27/9/1999 > DLKrts.nif 2,125 9/8/1999 > PROTOCOL.INI 58 13/7/1999 > > Once again, any help gratefully received > > Regards > Dennis ,-._|\ Robert Traynor (BobT) / Oz \ email rtraynor at optusnet dot com dot au \_,--.x/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- **= Email 6 ==========================** Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2003 16:24:14 +0950 (CST) From: "Paul Smedley" Subject: Re: Troubles On Tue, 22 Apr 2003 15:57:52 -1000, djn at peninsula.hotkey dot net dot au wrote: >I picked up the D-Link DFE-530TX+ Card this morning and have been slowly >going ga-ga ever since. What is the chipset on the actual card? Usually reaidly distinguishable around 1/2" square. Sometimes, people like D-Link will change chipset without changing the model number... If it's a Realtek 8139 chip - try the driver on Hobbes http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/system/drivers/network/rtsnd323.zip Regards, Paul. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- **= Email 7 ==========================** Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2003 18:09:45 +1000 From: Ed Durrant Subject: Re: DB/2 files We'll probably go the export / import route. So far it has been taking about 12 hours. we wrote a CMD file to do the import, the problem we've now got is that the log files fill and the import stops ! we've got them set to the maximum allowable size, so we'll probably have to empty the logfiles between each table load. I am using a X-Over cable. Unfortunately the old server only has 10MB/S ethernet and since comms is one area where the old server is flakey, I didn't want to put a 10/100 in until all the data is safe. If possible, I'd like to borrow your DB2 v 5.x manual - perhaps you can bring it along tomorrow night if its not too big & heavy ? Cheers/2 Ed. Daryl Pilkington wrote: > Hi Ed, > Yes it is possible, since the target & source OS are the same. > HOWEVER, this is definitely not supported or recommended by the IBM DB2 > Gurus in Toronto, the question has been asked before. > > I've done it successfully with v2.1, but I wouldn't risk it on > something important. > Note it is not as simple as just copying the node directory, enough > said. > > As you mentioned, the DBA would prefer import/export to allow cleaning > up of things. > How long would this take in practice? > So what if it takes overnight, you don't have to watch it. > > The DB2 load command will be quicker than import for the restoration of > the data. > Your DBA should know about load vs import. > > Obviously, import/export is very i/o intensive. > DB2 can be tuned, on-the-fly, to optimise a once-off export/import > operation. > > How about also using a x-over cable to the replacement server? > You'd get a full-duplex 100MB, (or is it token-ring), making the > transfer fast. > If its token-ring, you'll need to get a MAU as well. > > If HDD storage is limited in the replacement server, temporarily put a > large, fast IDE drive in for the target directory for the export task. > > Can I lend you my DB v5 book written by Don Chamberlin a member of the > DB2 development team at IBM Almaden Research Center. Lend this to your > DBA. > > On Mon, 21 Apr 2003 19:47:02 +1000, Ed Durrant wrote: > > >Can anyone tell me if it's possible to simply copy a complete OS/2 DB2 > >(v 5.x) database from one machine to another without having to export > >(or backup) and re-import the data ? > > > >Avoiding the export/import step will save me quite some time as we're > >talking of around 10-12 GB of data ! > > > > Regards, > > Daryl Pilkington > > //// The PC-Therapist, Business Computing Integration > O \_/ > OS/2 Warp, Redhat Linux, DB2 > IBM Certified Systems Expert > > email: darylp at pc-therapist dot com dot au > Mob: 0425-251-300 > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- **= Email 8 ==========================** Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2003 18:54:02 +1000 From: Peter Subject: Describe V4 - 1993 Hi all Do I remember correctly that someone was looking for a copy of the above program? I happened to find one on an October 1999 APC cd. Its a 1.3mb zip file & there doesnt seem to be any registration requirements. So if anyone wants it, just let me know. Cheers Peter ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- **= Email 9 ==========================** Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2003 19:08:47 +1000 From: Ed Durrant Subject: Re: Troubles Can you please cut and paste the text in your driver protocol.ini file (this is what the driver says to add to the system protocol.ini) and the system protocol.ini file from \IBMCOM\ so we can see what has actually been installed (or perhaps not ...) Also the \IBMLAN\IBMLAN.INI file. Cheers/2 Ed. djn at peninsula.hotkey dot net dot au wrote: > On Fri, 18 Apr 2003 19:12:42 -1000, djn at peninsula.hotkey dot net dot au wrote: > > Hi again > > I picked up the D-Link DFE-530TX+ Card this morning and have been slowly > going ga-ga ever since. > > The disk that came with the card didn't have OS/2 drivers, but I had > already downloaded the driver pack from D-Link's web site. > > Unfortunately they would not install. > > The Diagnostic program on the supplied disk (DOS Program) finds the card > and gets it's address and IRQ etc. tests the RAMN and EPROM etc but > bombs out when trying to test the network. > > The diagnostic program that came with the device drivers from the web > site couldn't find the card. > > Anyway I found the Sniffle program which checks the *.nif file for > consistency and validity. There was a missing underscore on the default > MEDIA value. I put it in and viola, the driver installed, and I was > cooking on gas. > > Rebooted the system and now the system can't find a PCI fast ethernet > adapter and so doesn't install the device drivers, and no network. > > So once again to the mpts utilities and ran the os2sniff. It finds the > card and identifies it as an unknown PCI ethernet adapter, but of course > the driver info is missing. > > I've tried rebooting with full hardware detection with no luck. > > I can only assume that there is something wrong in the driver. I can't > see how it was tested as it has obviously not been test installed onto > an OS/2 computer. > > The device driver info is > DLKRTS.os2 37,330 27/9/1999 > DLKrts.nif 2,125 9/8/1999 > PROTOCOL.INI 58 13/7/1999 > > Once again, any help gratefully received > > Regards > > Dennis > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- **= Email 10 ==========================** Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2003 21:03:12 +1000 (EST) From: "Chris Graham [WarpSpeed]" Subject: Re: DB/2 files On Mon, 21 Apr 2003 21:48:56 +1000 (EST), John Angelico wrote: >On Mon, 21 Apr 2003 19:47:02 +1000, Ed Durrant wrote: > >>Can anyone tell me if it's possible to simply copy a complete OS/2 DB2 >>(v 5.x) database from one machine to another without having to export >>(or backup) and re-import the data ? >> >>Avoiding the export/import step will save me quite some time as we're >>talking of around 10-12 GB of data ! DEFINATELY NOT! NEITHER WILL A BACKUP/RESTORE. DB2 embeds the machine name into several places within the code. Just export it and be done with it. Do it in IFX format and it it relatively quick. The fastest way is to import the data with no indexes/keys, then recreate the keys&indexes once the data is in the DB. >Several considerations: >Export/import is not required but backup/restore advisable because copy may >copy additional unnecessary files, and the process is risky unless you are >sure about all of DB/2's references including possible internal references. > >Try copying a small database file by file. If that works then try the >larger one. But beware that it may fail although NOT necessarily >immediately. Therefore, I would recommend backup/restore: the resulting >backup file will compress well. > >The other alternative is to simply reference the database across the >network. Is this possible? If so, all copying and backing up/restoring is >avoided, at the cost of slight performance loss across the network. In simple words: If it is worth doing, then it is worth doing properly. -Chris WarpSpeed Computers - The Graham Utilities for OS/2. Voice: +61-3-9307-0611 PO Box 212 FidoNet: 3:632/344 FAX: +61-3-9307-0633 Brunswick Internet: chrisg at warpspeed dot com dot au BBS: +61-3-9307-0644 VIC 3056 CompuServe: 100250,1645 300-28,800 N,8,1 ANSI Australia Web Page: http://www.warpspeed dot com dot au ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- **= Email 11 ==========================** Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2003 21:06:24 +1000 (EST) From: "Chris Graham [WarpSpeed]" Subject: Re: DB/2 files On Tue, 22 Apr 2003 18:09:45 +1000, Ed Durrant wrote: >We'll probably go the export / import route. > >So far it has been taking about 12 hours. we wrote a CMD file to do the import, the >problem we've now got is that the log files fill and the import stops ! we've got them >set to the maximum allowable size, so we'll probably have to empty the logfiles >between each table load. Drop the commit count to something a little more reasonble. I had to work with about 6Gb of data and it wasn't that bad. Simply do a table at a time. Just make sure that you run RUNSTATS on the tables once complete. It should run like a cut cat. >I am using a X-Over cable. Unfortunately the old server only has 10MB/S ethernet and >since comms is one area where the old server is flakey, I didn't want to put a 10/100 >in until all the data is safe. > >If possible, I'd like to borrow your DB2 v 5.x manual - perhaps you can bring it along >tomorrow night if its not too big & heavy ? > >Cheers/2 > >Ed. > >Daryl Pilkington wrote: > >> Hi Ed, >> Yes it is possible, since the target & source OS are the same. >> HOWEVER, this is definitely not supported or recommended by the IBM DB2 >> Gurus in Toronto, the question has been asked before. >> >> I've done it successfully with v2.1, but I wouldn't risk it on >> something important. >> Note it is not as simple as just copying the node directory, enough >> said. V2???? I guess things have changed since then. >> As you mentioned, the DBA would prefer import/export to allow cleaning >> up of things. >> How long would this take in practice? >> So what if it takes overnight, you don't have to watch it. >> >> The DB2 load command will be quicker than import for the restoration of >> the data. >> Your DBA should know about load vs import. >> >> Obviously, import/export is very i/o intensive. >> DB2 can be tuned, on-the-fly, to optimise a once-off export/import >> operation. >> >> How about also using a x-over cable to the replacement server? >> You'd get a full-duplex 100MB, (or is it token-ring), making the >> transfer fast. >> If its token-ring, you'll need to get a MAU as well. >> >> If HDD storage is limited in the replacement server, temporarily put a >> large, fast IDE drive in for the target directory for the export task. >> >> Can I lend you my DB v5 book written by Don Chamberlin a member of the >> DB2 development team at IBM Almaden Research Center. Lend this to your >> DBA. >> >> On Mon, 21 Apr 2003 19:47:02 +1000, Ed Durrant wrote: >> >> >Can anyone tell me if it's possible to simply copy a complete OS/2 DB2 >> >(v 5.x) database from one machine to another without having to export >> >(or backup) and re-import the data ? >> > >> >Avoiding the export/import step will save me quite some time as we're >> >talking of around 10-12 GB of data ! >> > >> >> Regards, >> >> Daryl Pilkington >> >> //// The PC-Therapist, Business Computing Integration >> O> \_/ >> OS/2 Warp, Redhat Linux, DB2 >> IBM Certified Systems Expert >> >> email: darylp at pc-therapist dot com dot au >> Mob: 0425-251-300 >> > >> > > > > -Chris WarpSpeed Computers - The Graham Utilities for OS/2. Voice: +61-3-9307-0611 PO Box 212 FidoNet: 3:632/344 FAX: +61-3-9307-0633 Brunswick Internet: chrisg at warpspeed dot com dot au BBS: +61-3-9307-0644 VIC 3056 CompuServe: 100250,1645 300-28,800 N,8,1 ANSI Australia Web Page: http://www.warpspeed dot com dot au ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- **= Email 12 ==========================** Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2003 19:11:02 +0800 From: bob Subject: The smoke escaped The smoke escaped from my modem wall plug so I'm back to using the ol' 14.4 :(. Anyone have a pointer to a good deal on a serial (not USB) external non win-modem? Something that I can stuff on top on the gateway box in the cupboard and forget about? thnx. -- Like the ski resort of girls looking for husbands and husbands looking for girls, the situation is not as symmetrical as it might seem. -- Alan McKay ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- **= Email 13 ==========================** Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2003 20:44:47 +0800 (HST) From: "Paul Smedley" Subject: Re: The smoke escaped Hi Bob, On Tue, 22 Apr 2003 19:11:02 +0800, bob wrote: >The smoke escaped from my modem wall plug so I'm back to using the ol' 14.4 >:(. > >Anyone have a pointer to a good deal on a serial (not USB) external non >win-modem? Something that I can stuff on top on the gateway box in the >cupboard and forget about? Just before Christmas I got Mum an external serial modem - cost was around $100 - whether that's a good deal or not I don't know!! What state are you in? We got this one from IT Warehouse in Adelaide... Regards, Paul. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- **= Email 14 ==========================** Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2003 19:24:22 +0800 From: bob Subject: Re: The smoke escaped On Tue, 22 Apr 2003 08:44 pm, you wrote: > Hi Bob, > > On Tue, 22 Apr 2003 19:11:02 +0800, bob wrote: > >The smoke escaped from my modem wall plug so I'm back to using the ol' > > 14.4 > > > >:(. > > > >Anyone have a pointer to a good deal on a serial (not USB) external non > >win-modem? Something that I can stuff on top on the gateway box in the > >cupboard and forget about? > > Just before Christmas I got Mum an external serial modem - cost was > around $100 - whether that's a good deal or not I don't know!! > > What state are you in? We got this one from IT Warehouse in Adelaide... What state? I could be flippant with that one =:-> WA. I've cruised most of the online vendors in Perth (http://bestbits.ii dot net/retailers.cgi) and not found much to my liking. One place tried to sell me an AOpen with a Lucent chipset which I was leery of till I get more info (anyone know if they're any good?) ~$100 for an external modem seems to be par at the moment. (though some I've seen are asking ~$300! for what I don't know as its described as an external 56k) Anyway... any advice appreciated. > Regards, > > Paul. -- Send your questions to ``ASK ZIPPY'', Box 40474, San Francisco, CA 94140, USA ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- **= Email 15 ==========================** Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2003 21:07:51 +0800 (HST) From: "Paul Smedley" Subject: Re: The smoke escaped Hi Bob, On Tue, 22 Apr 2003 19:24:22 +0800, bob wrote: >> Just before Christmas I got Mum an external serial modem - cost was >> around $100 - whether that's a good deal or not I don't know!! >> >> What state are you in? We got this one from IT Warehouse in Adelaide... > >What state? I could be flippant with that one =:-> Yeah well I did think twice about that comment :) >WA. Have you looked at this list of stores at http://forums.whirlpool dot net dot au/forum-replies.cfm?t=52057#r4 PLE had a few externals starting from around $85 - not all specify Serial interface though... Regards, Paul. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- **= Email 16 ==========================** Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2003 19:45:34 +0800 From: bob Subject: Re: The smoke escaped On Tue, 22 Apr 2003 09:07 pm, you wrote: > Hi Bob, > PLE had a few externals starting from around $85 - not all specify Serial > interface though... How'd I know you were going to say PLE :). Just about as far away from me as you can get and still be in Perth. Almost worth getting stuff posted :). Thanks. Having a look now. > Regards, > Paul. -- Totally illogical, there was no chance. -- Spock, "The Galileo Seven", stardate 2822.3 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------