/_ /_Just for future reference, I would really appreciate it if you told us /_what was happening. You got me psyched up about a problem (big-endian /_vs. little-endian, different salt accidentally used, etc.), but there /_is no conclusion. ;-) Sorry. I read the salt as "aa" rather than "$aa". A grep for "$aa" yielded the correct salt to use. What was someone thinking when assigning a variable as "$aa" ? v/r -Mike