>Thanks for your help!
>I gather that it does not matter that I can't use a HUB.

Well, it is better not to use hubs.

You can do two things to make your application faster over the network.

The first is playing with the application itself. Especially, you could see if some queries are not optimized.

The second is to get a good network. This includes:

Not using hubs, except perhaps to connect a few computers at the periphery (but the hubs must then be connected to switches).

Make sure the entire network has at least 100 Mbps.

For a larger network, some lines ("backbones", those that carry lots of network traffic) should have a larger bandwidth, for example, 1 Gbps. This might include the connection to the file server.

For a decent performance, you may very well need both.

Greetings,

Hilmar.

Difference in opinions hath cost many millions of lives: for instance, whether flesh be bread, or bread be flesh; whether whistling be a vice or a virtue; whether it be better to kiss a post, or throw it into the fire... (from Gulliver's Travels)