darn, i was afraid the answer wouldnt be simple. i'll use your suggestion and see if i can locate the culprit.

thanks again

rik

i never thought of that. so it only does the update if those self-joined AlertNumbers match? and Still Returns the results?

i'm sorry but that is totally brilliant,simple and elegant

thanks...

wow. that's perfect. yes, we do use windows authentication - so this should work out great. thanks again for the help Brian.

rik