looks like it's open-network-stream (or -internal) that's causing all my grief - anything else i've tried (zenirc, ldap-search, etc.) exhibits a similar problem - Signaling: (wrong-type-argument stringp open-network-stream-internal) string-match("^Unknown host" open-network-stream-internal) byte-code("..." [string-match "^Unknown host" data zenirc-message buffer conn$ zenirc-establish-server-connection(#<buffer "*zenirc*">) zenirc(nil) call-interactively(zenirc) command-execute(zenirc t) execute-extended-command(nil) call-interactively(execute-extended-command) If someone can help me trace this a bit further, i'd be most appreciative - i can work gdb just fine, but i'm a neophyte at debugging something like open-network-stream-internal in it :) Thanks heeps, Andrew -- Andrew J Cosgriff <ajc(a)bing.wattle.id.au&gt; exterminate all rational thought ! telephone brother CNN virus status