Thanks for the help. I hope you don't mind if I ask more questions about this? I couldn't get it to work.

I copied your script to a blank document, and replaced the urls and the site id with my own. I then added <?php and ?> to the top and bottom (just a guess here) and named it vbchat.php. I uploaded it into my forum directory, called it in the browser and received the following error:

Fatal error: Call to a member function on a non-object in /usr/www/thingsar/httpd/htdocs/..mydomain/forum/vbchat.php on line 5

(btw, I'm not really grumpy, I'm a nice old lady and am sincerely appreciative of any help you can give me )