i had not thought about the security issue of using a xml file, so thanks alot for bringing it to my attention. I have changed the file extention to .config now -- Christian

thx alot for the reply ... both of you. One problem for me is that the website is in a hosted enviroment so i don't have the possibility of altering the ISS. I do know that changing the web.config will restart the application, and that is a sideeffect that i can live with. Then its up to the end-user to make the change at a suitable time. But i am still very much interested in a solution? -- Christian