Thanks Auctiva Mike for your response - but your advise didn't help as my problem was that I couldn't connect to Auctiva in any interactive way - if you had read my cries for help you would have realised that was my (and other peoples)problem. No worries, I'm back on now and the site is super. But the problem at the time was that I couldn't access Auctiva via any media, even the help site on these Community boards were not available to me or others. Turns out my access problem was due to my ISP (Karoo) and their lack of communicating that they had an internet router problem to their customers. I've come back to these boards to tell of the outcome for me, in the hope it helps other people in the future who may experience similar difficulties. Many help areas tell people to clear this that and the other, reduce security settings etc - which I did and spent many hours doing - when all the while the problem was a simple ISP issue. Frustrated does not cover it. Silver lining is thanks to the many on these boards that offered constructive advise:thanks to you all. Problem is I live in an area where Karoo has the monopoly on all telecommunications and I don't have the luxury of switching supplier.