http://www.teledotcom.com/news0899/news083099_3.html MCI Worldcom is getting some third-party help with their communications. Although this was mostly directed to an IP network, most of the suggestions are applicable to all networks. Check out the NANOG archives from 1995 (watch the addresses, people have switched employers several times since). search for the subject "outages, quality monitoring, trouble tickets, etc" http://answerpointe.cctec.com/query/q-nanog.asp Here was my opinion in 1995, the problem with the Net is your words will come back to haunt you. http://answerpointe.cctec.com/maillists/nanog/historical/9511/msg00319.html -- Sean Donelan, Data Research Associates, Inc, St. Louis, MO Affiliation given for identification not representation