found it...I cut and pasted the original exactly as is..!/bin/sh http_monitor_cURL+POST it appears the extra test http_monitor_cURL+POST was the problem...after that, Aaron's test of just using http still failed. I removed the double quotes from around the ${DATA} variable on the curl line of the script and in the monitor, enclosed the text for that variable in single quotes. now the http test worked..I put my original RECV string back in and had the same special character issue...I removed teh double quotes from the RECV variable on the curl line, put in single quotes in the gui for the text for that variable and now it is working...thanks Aaron !!