Thanks folks.... much appreciated.
I am sorry to be asking such basic questions ... its mostly due to a lack of basic knowledge.
C makes VB look like cat in the hat!
One the one hand ...
I am struggling with basic constructs, syntax and in the case of strings the slightest clue about haw to deal with them effectively, beginners stuff.
And on the other ...
Conceptually I am thinking OO and treating my minor network nodes as out of process threads.
It is a frustrating and unsettling situation 