Hi all, thanks for your suggestions.  I am at the point where I think
the problem has shifted from being one of tape drive specification to
communication between the Tape host server and the client.  When I run
amcheck this is the part of the message I get:

"WARNING: linux.local: selfcheck request timed out.  Host down? Client
check: 1 host checked in 30.016 seconds, 1 problem found"

The logs in /tmp/amanda give amcheck: debug 1 pid 1316 ruid 37 euid 0
start time Mon Jun 16 04:51:42 2003
amcheck: dgram_bind: socket bound to 0.0.0.0.626
amcheck: pid 1316 finish time Mon Jun 16 04:52:12 2003

Is the Amanda user supposed to have a uid below or above 500?  Mine has
one below and was created when I installed Amanda, i.e. the Amanda user
was not directly created by me.  Also in .amandahosts I have using root
along with the hostname.  Has anybody got an idea of what could be
wrong?  Thanks.