>Great lead, Naomi, thanks
>
>Running this script from the SQL Query analyzer returns sono (an indexed field in the DBF) almost as quickly as VFP returns it.
>
>SELECT sono from OPENQUERY(linkeddata, 'SELECT * FROM somast01 WHERE sono = " 236208"')
>
>That's exactly what I was looking for..

You're welcome - I was reading T-SQL forum last night and when I saw this thread I remembered your question.