Thanks Just in case this might help others here's the latest. I've checked the Apache error log and there are a couple of errors I've pasted the last 6 at the end of this email in case anyone can decipher why things are not being written to the files. The third error is rather strange at least to me it has a forward slash and a backslash in the path. i.e. \ringlink\lib/rlconfig.pm . This may be relevant to Unix as I had to change a few of the backslashes within rlconfig.pm to get the script to work with Win 98 . I knew about this problem with other scripts I run on NT some of the slashes have to be changed before a script works. If memory serves me well I think you change path statement backslashes to forwardslashes on server files. i.e. x:\adir\anotherdir\data.txt works on Unix but not on NT or win9x (at least on my ISP) Gunnar! The DIR's for the rings have been written to the data directory and contain 1 empty file nameley "ring.db" . In case this may be relevant my data directory is outside my CGI-BIN. The main settings for my config file are also below. As for understanding how it works Yes I am always inteseted in how Perl scripts work so I'm off to study the FAQ again and the readme and of course your site. Many thanks Lawrence Deans Digital Analyst MY RLCONFIG.PM (snipped a little to save space):-) # Address to the homepage of this Ringlink set-up $ringlinkURL = 'http://localhost/ring/ringlink.html'; # Address to the directory with the *.pl or *.cgi files $cgiURL = 'http://localhost/cgi-bin/ringlink'; # Path to the directory with the *.pl or *.cgi files $cgipath = 'C:/apachegroup/apache/cgi-bin/ringlink'; # Path to the directory where the ring data will be stored $datapath = 'C:/apachegroup/apache/htdocs/ring/data/'; APACHE ERRORS [Tue Nov 14 15:48:53 2000] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] Premature end of script headers: c:/apachegroup/apache/cgi-bin/ringlink/newsite.pl [Tue Nov 14 15:48:53 2000] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] Bareword found where operator expected at C:\apachegroup\apache\cgi-bin\ringlink\lib/rlconfig.pm line 5, near "$ringlinkURL" [Tue Nov 14 15:48:53 2000] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] (Missing operator before L?) [Tue Nov 14 15:48:53 2000] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] syntax error at C:\apachegroup\apache\cgi-bin\ringlink\lib/rlconfig.pm line 5, near "$ringlinkUR" [Tue Nov 14 15:48:53 2000] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] (Might be a runaway multi-line RR string starting on line 2) [Tue Nov 14 15:48:53 2000] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at c:/apachegroup/apache/cgi-bin/ringlink/newsite.pl line 30.