Well I was able to validate echolink using my credit card. Now I am fighting with the udp port forwarding on my 3com firewall vpn. I had a linksys router and it died. My friend here at work gave me a 3com officeconnect firewall vpn and port forwarding isn't that easy to set up. I found some instructions on the web and will try them this evening when I get home. I hope they work.