I don't know if this is a common problem or not (I've not come across it) but the first thing I'd do is turn on the debug output (DebugOutput=enabled) in /ezpublish_installation_dir/settings/site.ini and see what it says :) Sorry I couldn't be more help
thanks for the reply. I will let you know if it worked. I had FTP'd the ezpublish directories unzipped to my hoster. I'm going to put the unzipped .tar file on the server and unpack it over there and see if i have the same problem. Thanks again. :) Ward