>>While I would not give 999:1 odds like Walter, you have been prodded often enough to either install locally or use a loader (Christians caching idea is nothing but using a loader functionality into RAM).
>>
>>At least TRY if local install eliminates part of the bugs instead of burning up energy and time...
>>
>If it looks like a duck....
>While we cherish the exceptions, the obvious is usually true.
>I agree with Walter. That particular problem- a network disconnect - file not found- has cost me some serious dollars over the years.

I also agree with Walter - I tried to steer him politely to avoid starting the vfp.exe from network a couple of times ;-)
Just the odds of 99.9% are too high for my taste: if Dmitry is slow in setting up local install, it might run a bill of $500.

Now if there still is ONE lonely programming error, betting loss would be 500K$ - without me having eyeballed code.
Not a smart bet. OTOH I would give high odds that local install at least halves the errors - Dmitris way to try to fix the errors is roundabout, costly in his H and IMO totally ineffektive.

>We developers can't be any better than the platforms we run on.

Yupp, but vfp compiled access is DESIGNED to run from local HD - swimming upriver by intent will encounter all feces added. Swimming downriver might still encounter 1 or 2, but those can be wrapped by code ;-)

>My advice to Dimity is - find an excellent network person.

Good to have one on your list - alternative is to make client pay for all work caused by his network issues. If client is unreasonable on local install or program loader, make him pay unreasonable prices. Data access issues via SQL were easy to fix via "retry" on connection.

Al even spelled out which the layers are involved / needed to work and how issues might be handled.

>That's a lot more difficult than writing code but you have to do it.
>I did that about 15 years ago and it changed my life.

I lost very few clients due to "my way or the highway", was glad it did NOT change my life (as I try not to work for free or few €/H on a farm for somebody elses misconceptions, highway might offer at least new perks in new places), but was worth it. I am not one trying to kiss the foot or boot kicking me with unresolved network issues ;-)