It all depends on how much data you are accessing. VFP is an IASM database meaning it goes to the source to read the data - any query accesses the source tables and has to load most of that data into memory - some of this can be mitigated by Rushmore and indexing but there's still a boatload of data accessed over the wire.

While WAN or even Internet access with FoxPro data can work, it's usually unsatisfactory. If files are large (in the megabyte range) performance is generally too slow to be usable over a slow connection.

In those scenarios it's usually best to use (or build) servers that can serve the *result* data which can be much more efficient. Rather than accessing the data to run the actual queries you only return the results. That's why there are SQL Servers like MS SQL, MySql etc. because they scale much better over slower connections. You can also build FoxPro services on your own and consume them. FOr example Web Connection includes an HTTP service that can expose FoxPro data from a Web server using a SQL Passthrough like client and that can be surprisingly efficient.

If you notice slow connection speed in your WAN even in testing you can be rest assured it's likely only going to get worse. So I'd carefully take that into consideration if you go down that path.

+++ Rick ---

>Hi,
>
>A customer is trying to use my VFP 9 application from a computer that connects to the server via WAN. The program runs very slow; queries take a long time. The IT person says that this facility (where PC is located) connects to the main network at 100 mb. Is it very slow? What are the acceptable speeds for a good application performance? What are the typical speeds of WAN?
>
>TIA