John, I don't know if this would help you out or not, but a few months ago I wrote a VFP backend server and client - really just as a proof of concept for myself, but it works pretty well. It's pure VFP, except for the socket controls and multithreading on the server side.

The server excepts a SQL commands or a code block to execute and returns a response for pass/fail or a dataset. Much like standard SQLEXEC but a little more capable in that it allows you to send actual code blocks too. It handles data compression sending over the wire, etc.

LMK if you're interested in trying it out and I can send you a copy.

-m@