>I have a request from my users (doctors) that they would like to access our patient database (VFP 3) while visiting patients throughout the hospital campus. The campus is several buildings stretching over 4x4 city block area. The areas they visit may or may not have computers or ethernet connections.
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>The database is written in pure VFP3 on a netware 4 fileserver. There is a campus wide TCP/IP network but not a certainty of live ethernet drops being available. They have expressed interest in hand-held or laptops as the vehicles for using the database. Laptops seem more generic and easier to find a solution for.
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You're looking at laptops unless you use something like WTS or Citrix - VFP won't run under CE, and most CE appliances wouldn't have the memory needed even if it did.

>What are my options and does anyone have any products or solutions they can recommend? Some things that I can think of off the top of my head are:
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>1) Use wireless ethernet cards. ($$)
>I am unsure of the distances and speeds they operate at.

A few hundred feet at most. Probably not a solution in your case.

>2) Make a synchronization routine. The doctors carry a copy of the database with them then manually schronize it when they arrive in the unit or at an live ethernet port.

Least cost solution from a hardware standpoint at least, but limited to laptops, and if timeliness of data is an issue, not a great solution. It does have the benefit of working anywhere, even where the network or comm links are dead.

>3) Use a cellular modem with PC anywhere or citrix server ($$$)

This is the -only- solution if palmtop/CE systems are being considered and a VFP app is going to be used. It is expensive; the number of concurrent users, and the real requirement of wireless/cellular phone access determine the final cost. The advantages here are that you can use any dial-up, not just cellular solutions, to access the database; you minimize the hardware requirements on the client side - anything that can access the selected terminal server package, including non-Intel platforms, can use the application; and you can limit how users can access the database (unlike a local copy of an app or a database on a live EtherNet connection, you have a reasonable chance of keeping people from opening a .CDX file with Word 'just to see what exactly s in that file').

If the vast majority of locations have an EtherNet connection available, I'd look at making the app available on EtherNet with a limited number of dial-in sessions; you can start by using a normal modem connection unless there are lots of spots where neither EtherNet nor POTS is available.