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Sorry my reply has taken a while... add to that the garbage that Exchange sends out as 'email.' YUCK! Anyhow, the question if I recall was is IrDa the same as remotes, how to see if IR is working and if it can be used to as a remote control. I don't know if the IrDa spec is exactly the same but your thinkpad will receive from a remote control. If I remember properly, the normal debug routine to see if IrDa is working is to use a terminal program (even the basic one from Win3.x) and set to use a direct connection to the serial port that the IrDa port is on. Set the program in receive mode, hold the remote near and inline with the IrDa port and start pressing buttons. They should show up as random character strings in the terminal window. It wouldn't surprise me if someone somewhere hasn't already done so already, but it certainly is conceivable to script an interface to use a laptop and its IrDa port as a remote control. The biggest issue I see is the proper code sequences etc.... for each and every device. It would be a novel little app, but then thinking about it why waste the resources, power etc.