function ajaxrequest(container,query,type)
{
if (!ajax)
  {
  var ajax = null;
  if (window.XMLHttpRequest) {ajax = new XMLHttpRequest();}
  else if (window.ActiveXObject) {ajax = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");}
  else {alert("couldnt create XMLHttpRequest object"); return false;}
  }
else if (ajax.readyState != 0) {ajax.abort();}

if (!container || !type) {alert('ajax request illegal call: container or type was null'); return false;}
var state = null;
var timer = null;
container = document.getElementById(container);
ajax.onreadystatechange = function()
  {
  if (ajax.readyState == 4)
    {
	if (ajax.status!=200)
      {
	  //container.style.cssText="background-color: red; padding: 5px;"
	  // debug code - remove from live
      if (ajax.status==400) {alert('bad request');}
      if (ajax.status==401) {alert('unauthorized');}
      if (ajax.status==403) {alert('forbidden');}
      if (ajax.status==404) {alert('not found');}
      if (ajax.status==408) {alert('request timed out');}
      if (ajax.status==500) {alert('internal server error');}
      if (ajax.status==503) {alert('service unavailable');}
	  // end debug
      }
	clearTimeout(timer);
	container.innerHTML = ajax.responseText;
    }	
  else
    {
	if (!state)
	  {
	  state = true;
	  }
	}  
  }
ajax.open('POST', 'http://www.alpha-innovation.co.uk/lib/servers/' + type + '/', true);
// GET ajax.setRequestHeader( "If-Modified-Since", "Sat, 1 Jan 2000 00:00:00 GMT" );
ajax.setRequestHeader('Content-type','application/x-www-form-urlencoded;charset=UTF-8;');
ajax.send(query);
container.innerHTML = '<em>processing...</em>';
timer=setTimeout(function() {ajax.abort(); container.innerHTML = '<em>timed out - waited 10 seconds</em>'; delete ajax;},10000)
}