Hi, If you are running brctl tool on the linux box then there is a command that will automatically determine the number of MAC addresses in the network #brctl showmacs <bridge name> <port number of ur lan interfce> grep -v -w port | wc -l Ex: #brctl showmacs abcd 1 grep -v -w port | wc -l Note that, for this to work your box should be confogurred as a bridge in promiscuous mode.... I use this method to automatically determine the number of MAC addresses in my LAN.. Use this in combination with crontab to do the job...... Hope, this helps..... Regards KartheeK Yahoo! India Matrimony: Find your life partneronline. _______________________________________________ LARTC mailing list LARTC@mailman.ds9a.nl http://mailman.ds9a.nl/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/lartc