>>>>At a certain customer site (running Windows XP with 1GIG network gear), starting a form with a Dropdown Combo Control that loads 12,000 record, takes more than 20 seconds. Opening the same form on the Server, takes only couple of seconds.
>>>>
>>>>He has had the GeekSquad there couple of times and they've said the network is fast enough! and the problem is with the VFP application. Any suggestions ?
>>>>
>>>>Thanks .
>>>
>>>Your problem is not the LAN or Indexes. Comboboxes are not meant for 12000 records. The user is assuredly not going to browse all 12000. There are smarter combobox classes around that will bring down 10 at a time.
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>>I agree that putting 12,000 items in a combobox is not a good idea. But why do you say that the problem is with the combobox?
>>If getting the records is fast on the server and slow over the network then I don't understand why the fact that the recordset happens to be consumed by a combobox is relevant.
>
>Populating the control with items takes time. Of course things work faster on the server, but that's an irrelevant comparison. The only relevant aspect is pulling that much data across the wire. The combobox is often abused in just this way. It's the cause of the data suck.

I still argue that the combobox is irrelevant - it's the retrieval of the data not what consumes it that causes the problem. And surely indexes are *very* relevant. If there's no suitable index VFP is going to have to pull the entire table over the wire in order to make a selection. In that situation whether you are selecting 12000 records or 12 you are still going to get pretty much the same slow performance.