hi... got a bit of a problem/lack of understanding...
the following url works in a browser window. it can be selected, and the appropriate page appears... http://soc.our.psu.edu/soc/act_main_search.cfm?Semester=FALL%202004&CrseLoc= AA%3A%3AAltoona%20Campus&CECrseLoc=&CourseAbbrev=0&CrseAlpha=a%2Dc&CourseNum =0 what i'm trying to get a better understanding of, is why when this is used with libwww/wget/etc.. the correct page is not returned.. i've disabled cookies on my test IE browser so it shouldn't be a cookie issue.. (and yeah.. you were correct when you pointed out that all this really does is redirect to a basic tree structure!!! which kind of makes this effort pointless.. but i need to get a better understanding as to what the problem/issue is that i'm missing...) if anybody has any insight, i'd appreciate it! i took a quick look at the headers using windump... (i've cut out alot of the garbage to give a feel as to what appears to be happening...) flags [DF], length: 691, bad cksum 0 (->a17c)!) sys2.mesa.com.2327 > soc.our.psu.edu.80: P 366:1017(651) ack 165 win 17356 0x0000: 4500 02b3 6ad1 4000 8006 0000 c0a8 0103 [EMAIL PROTECTED] 0x0010: 92ba 9791 0917 0050 4c75 f500 da9b f421 .......PLu.....! 0x0020: 5018 43cc ee9c 0000 504f 5354 202f 736f P.C.....POST./so 0x0030: 632f 6d61 696e 5f73 6561 7263 682e 6366 c/main_search.cf 0x0040: 6d20 4854 5450 2f31 2e31 0d0a 4163 6365 m.HTTP/1.1..Acce 0x0050: 7074 pt . . . 0x0000: 4500 0028 6ad5 4000 8006 0000 c0a8 0103 E..([EMAIL PROTECTED] 0x0010: 92ba 9791 0917 0050 4c75 f78b da9b f491 .......PLu...... 0x0020: 5010 435c ec11 0000 P.C\.... 12:21:17.747572 IP (tos 0x0, ttl 128, id 27351, offset 0, flags [DF], length: 617, bad cksum 0 (->a1c0)!) sys2.mesa.com.2327 > soc.our.psu.edu.80: P 1017:1594(577) ack 788 win 16733 0x0000: 4500 0269 6ad7 4000 8006 0000 c0a8 0103 [EMAIL PROTECTED] 0x0010: 92ba 9791 0917 0050 4c75 f78b da9b f690 .......PLu...... 0x0020: 5018 415d ee52 0000 4745 5420 2f73 6f63 P.A].R..GET./soc 0x0030: 2f61 6374 5f6d 6169 6e5f 7365 6172 6368 /act_main_search 0x0040: 2e63 666d 3f53 656d 6573 7465 723d 4641 .cfm?Semester=FA 0x0050: 4c4c LL 12:21:17.747619 IP (tos 0x0, ttl 128, id 27351, offset 0, flags [DF], length: 617, bad cksum 0 (->a1c0)!) sys2.mesa.com.2327 > soc.our.psu.edu.80: P 1017:1594(577) ack 788 win 16733 0x0000: 4500 0269 6ad7 4000 8006 0000 c0a8 0103 [EMAIL PROTECTED] 0x0010: 92ba 9791 0917 0050 4c75 f78b da9b f690 .......PLu...... 0x0020: 5018 415d ee52 0000 4745 5420 2f73 6f63 P.A].R..GET./soc 0x0030: 2f61 6374 5f6d 6169 6e5f 7365 6172 6368 /act_main_search 0x0040: 2e63 666d 3f53 656d 6573 7465 723d 4641 .cfm?Semester=FA 0x0050: 4c4c LL . . . 12:21:18.270385 IP (tos 0x0, ttl 128, id 27360, offset 0, flags [DF], length: 40, bad cksum 0 (->a3f8)!) sys2.mesa.com.2330 > soc.our.psu.edu.80: . [bad tcp cksum ec11 (->e378)!] 0:0(0) ack 1 win 17520 0x0000: 4500 0028 6ae0 4000 8006 0000 c0a8 0103 E..([EMAIL PROTECTED] 0x0010: 92ba 9791 091a 0050 4c95 8117 dab9 ea23 .......PL......# 0x0020: 5010 4470 ec11 0000 P.Dp.... 12:21:18.272296 IP (tos 0x0, ttl 128, id 27361, offset 0, flags [DF], length: 522, bad cksum 0 (->a215)!) sys2.mesa.com.2330 > soc.our.psu.edu.80: P 0:482(482) ack 1 win 17520 0x0000: 4500 020a 6ae1 4000 8006 0000 c0a8 0103 [EMAIL PROTECTED] 0x0010: 92ba 9791 091a 0050 4c95 8117 dab9 ea23 .......PL......# 0x0020: 5018 4470 edf3 0000 4745 5420 2f73 6f63 P.Dp....GET./soc 0x0030: 2f66 616c 6c2f 6161 2f61 2d63 2f69 6e64 /fall/aa/a-c/ind 0x0040: 6578 2e68 746d 6c20 4854 5450 2f31 2e31 ex.html.HTTP/1.1 0x0050: 0d0a .. 12:21:18.272342 IP (tos 0x0, ttl 128, id 27361, offset 0, flags [DF], length: 522, bad cksum 0 (->a215)!) sys2.mesa.com.2330 > soc.our.psu.edu.80: P 0:482(482) ack 1 win 17520 0x0000: 4500 020a 6ae1 4000 8006 0000 c0a8 0103 [EMAIL PROTECTED] 0x0010: 92ba 9791 091a 0050 4c95 8117 dab9 ea23 .......PL......# 0x0020: 5018 4470 edf3 0000 4745 5420 2f73 6f63 P.Dp....GET./soc 0x0030: 2f66 616c 6c2f 6161 2f61 2d63 2f69 6e64 /fall/aa/a-c/ind 0x0040: 6578 2e68 746d 6c20 4854 5450 2f31 2e31 ex.html.HTTP/1.1 0x0050: 0d0a .. as you can see... the client initially sends a "..main_search.cfm.. which is redirected towards ..act_main_search.cfm...to finally .../fall/aa/a-c/index.html.." the overall issue i have is how to set this up using libwww/mechanize/etc... thanks... -bruce