>>Would using files with the USE ... NOUPDATE clause make access to those files faster in a multi-user network environment?
>
>It did once, back in the time of XT and 286 machines, and generally should work today as well, because it eliminates locking. Those who don't write to a file, don't require locks, and the network has that much less overhead. I don't know how much, though, as a lock is just a few packets travelling between a WS and the file server (request, response) and the server checking somewhere in the file's map whether the lock can be granted or not, and writing an entry when a lock is put (and erasing it when unlocking), plus some signalization about dirty old buffers. But in a tight spot this may help some. YMMV, I guess.

Thanks for the info.