I see! I wouldn't have thought this would be an acceptable rate. With XP, the failure rate is almost non existent. I'll re-think my approach a bit. But Yes to the LAN and it's on one network switch/router segment. I check for a ping back and then check for a fileexists flag before proceeding with the rest, as sometimes a ping works but the network isn't available for file access. That could be due to a corrupt Windows OS or bad hardware. The ping is just the first line of the test. But when it fails it requires a human operator to click the "restart scan" (so to speak). The failed ping is hard to catch, so perhaps a re-try ping is enough. Up to 3 auto re-tries should be enough? Thank you, Mr. Piette. It means a lot to get direct feedback from you. I'll research this some more.