1) Bind to remote DSA with local distinguished name. This checks network connections, for example % dish -c giant -u "c=GB@o=My University@cn=Manager" Welcome to Dish (DIrectory SHell) Enter password for "c=GB@o=My University@cn=Manager": Dish -> This will connect to the DSA Giant Tortosie, and call your DSA to check the password for the "c=GB@o=My University@cn=Manager" entry. 2) Check you can see some of your data. This checks the masterDSA/slaveDSA attributes are OK. For example, Dish -> moveto "@c=GB@o=My University" Dish -> list -dontusecopy 1 organizationalUnitName=Computer Science 2 organizationalUnitName=Admin ... Dish -> list 1 ... 7 commonName= Colin Robbins ... Dish -> showentry 7 ... Dish -> quit Of course - you don't have to use Dish, other interfaces can do exactly the same thing.