Great, then ken can count  on you for help, eh?  :)

 >
 >>       XP doesn't like passing control of it's hardware to programs
 > running
 >> under XP.  I'd bet that you could easily open IE.EXE, just not IM.EXE
 > unless
 >> you tell IM that there's no modem.
 >>
 >>       I'd suspect that you should be looking for a replacement FOSSIL
 > driver
 >> that does function properly under XP, and possibly disable DTR controls.
 >>
 >
 > Bob, I'm runnin IM under XP with the default fossil no less .  With
 > the same settings I used under DOS.  It may be that 250 works better
 > under windows then 129 though.  I dont know what version he is
 > running.  I do know that 2.50 knows it is running under windows
 >
 > --- SBBSecho 2.00-Win32

--- GEcho/32 & IM 2.50