be warned, i do have a twisted imagination and a sarcastic sense of humor something i like to let loose in my writing. even now, it chokes me up. frankly, beyond a coat, what more could you want? having said this it is not much point asking them for too much local information. so we may as well be as real as we can from the very beginning. in that case, you want to indicate to the transport to “use any free port” (or “port 0” in sockets-speak). i’d love you to death, but i’m afraid it might kill you. 