thanks for the input michel it gave me a better understanding of what was going on, BUT it still doesnt work! argh. My httpd.conf now says: " <VirtualHost www.test.net> ServerAdmin webmaster@www.test.net #dont need a document root for Zope # DocumentRoot "/windows/My Documents/Web sites/www.test.net" #so use a null one - not the apache default # DocumentRoot '' ServerName www.test.net ErrorLog /usr/local/httpd/cgi-bin/www.test.net_log CustomLog /usr/local/httpd/cgi-bin/www.test.net_log common #Added by David - Palmer admin #<Confidence low> # Zope configuration maps /Zope/ to the Zope.cgi CGI script #ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ /usr/local/httpd/cgi-bin/ RewriteEngine on RewriteLog /usr/local/httpd/cgi-bin/zap_rewrite_log RewriteLogLevel 9 RewriteCond %{HTTP:Authorization} ^(.*) RewriteRule ^/Zope/(.*) /usr/local/httpd/cgi-bin/Zope.cgi/$1 [e=HTTP_CGI_AUTHORIZATION:%1,t=application/x-httpd-cgi,l] #</confidence> </VirtualHost> " the rewrite log says: " 82c][rid#80eceb4/initial] (2) init rewrite engine with requested uri /Zope/manage 192.168.0.2 - - [15/Mar/2000:19:16:51 +0000] [rid#80eceb4/initial] (3) applying pattern '^/Zope/(.*)' to uri '/Zope/manage' [www.test.net/sid#80e182c][rid#80eceb4/initial] (4) RewriteCond: input='' pattern='^(.*)' => matched 192.168.0.2 - - [15/Mar/2000:19:16:51 +0000] [www.test.net/sid#80e182c][rid#80eceb4/initial] (2) rewrite /Zope/manage -> /usr/local/httpd/cgi-bin/Zope.cgi/manage 192.168.0.2 - - [15/Mar/2000:19:16:51 +0000] [www.test.net/sid#80e182c][rid#80eceb4/initial] (5) setting env variable 'HTTP_CGI_AUTHORIZATION' to '' 192.168.0.2 - - [15/Mar/2000:19:16:51 +0000] [www.test.net/sid#80e182c][rid#80eceb4/initial] (2) remember /usr/local/httpd/cgi-bin/Zope.cgi/manage to have MIME-type 'application/x-httpd-cgi' 192.168.0.2 - - [15/Mar/2000:19:16:51 +0000] [www.test.net/sid#80e182c][rid#80eceb4/initial] (2) local path result: /usr/local/httpd/cgi-bin/Zope.cgi/manage 192.168.0.2 - - [15/Mar/2000:19:16:51 +0000] [www.test.net/sid#80e182c][rid#80eceb4/initial] (1) go-ahead with /usr/local/httpd/cgi-bin/Zope.cgi/manage [OK] 192.168.0.2 - - [15/Mar/2000:19:16:51 +0000] [www.test.net/sid#80e182c][rid#80eceb4/initial] (1) force filename /usr/local/httpd/cgi-bin/Zope.cgi to have MIME-type 'application/x-httpd-cgi' again Im not sure what the 'force filename' bit mean and whether "setting env variable 'HTTP_CGI_AUTHORIZATION' to '' " looks right? Now I just get "You don't have permission to access /Zope/home on this server." no login prompts start screens or anything. Is there anyway of debugging the interaction between Zope and Apache rewrite? Thanks David "desperate to avoid PHP :)"