Oh boy! I guess I thought it was worse than it actually is! You see, I thought you had designed the whole system and also came up with the idea of installing it without any VGA extenders. I'm glad (and I'm sure you are too) that it was somebody eleses botchjob, and you will not be held personally responsible for the popping cards. Or is the story different yet? It's so difficult to get the story straight sometimes...

Anyway, forget my warning about what you promise to customers then. You were obviously not to blame because it wasn't you who offered it to them in the first place. You are just the guy who was asked to clean the mess up.

Yes, IF a new system would have to be made, small, cheap PC's near each monitor, and ethernet to maybe connect them up to some server-like thingie sounds like the best idea. But if you make it like this, why still think about VGA extension? In my experience up to 5m of cable is very safe.

Oh, and do NOT attempt to write your own protocol! just use whatever protocol is on the PC. If you get TCP/IP practically free with the PC, why go through the trouble of re-inventing the wheel? You should use all that saved time and money for a well deserved vacation.

Uhhhh... and to keep it on-topic, make sure you use NICs with an 8052 on board somewhere :-------)