Yes, Al - the problem is that the string can be anywhere in the field. It is a name field.

I have an incremental search that solves for 95% of the searches, but the GIGO (garbage in = garbage out) effect from users messes things up. As an example - there is a customer with the last name CONTEH - they were looking for a current job ticket for him frantically, but found nothing, were jumping all over me for the search not working, so I used 'CON' $ lastname, got a list and found the name, but a minimum wage user had spelled it 'CONETH', so I have to write in a last ditch type search where 'CON' $ lastname would be applicable - just it takes a minute to go thru a hundred odd thousand
records, and with today's instant gratification attitude, that just isn't acceptable. So - the answer to the questions asked 1. Yes - the substring is anywhere in the field. 2. Reccount is a couple of hundred thousand. 3. A 'long time' is a minute.

Yes - network is wired gigabit, and very responsive under normal use. Yes - DNS is used. No - * is not used in SQL Select when I use it - only the relevant fields.

$ works perfectly, but just takes longer than users want to wait - lol!

Thanks everybody for their input thus far - really appreciate it!