>>Sorry to have rattled on so, but I really get excited about some of the new tools that are available. Hope I answered your questions.
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>Rattle, please! That's what I asked for. <g>
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>Your answers are very helpful.
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>You said "SQL security blends seamlessly with NT security". Do you need to have your users on NT Workstation to get this advantage?
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>>We now have several applications with the capability of using mixed VB/VFP user interfaces talking to VFP DCOM servers using ADO to query SQL Server data.
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>Could you elaborate a little on that? What runs where?
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>I'm still a little unsure about SQL pricing. I understand that you buy SQL and then pay extra for blocks of Client Access Licenses. If you need to set up two separate and independent SQL DB on two different boxes do you need to pay again?
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>Peter

No, you don't have to have NT on the workstations. We have a few Win95 machines on our network that work just fine, the security interaction is between SQL Server and the domain controller. You can set up SQL to require separate passwords if you so desire.

The VB and/or VFP user interfaces run on the client. They are the business forms for data entry/review with a minimal amount of logic to trap entry errors. They interface with a DCOM server which is written in VFP and runs on a network server. The logic in the DCOM server decides where the data is coming from (or going to) and does any gathering, calculating, or filtering required. It creates an instance (in MTS) of the VFP server that actually pulls data from SQL Server and passes it the query parameters.

So, we have code running on the clients and on one or more servers on the network. The business logic and the data access logic can run on the same or different servers. The physical location is not as important as the logical separation of the tiers.

I don't keep up with the dollar cost of SQL licensing but your statement above is correct, you would have to have two copies of SQL server to run two physically separated databases. The client licences apply to either. I think the smallest increment of CAL's you can buy is five but I'm not sure of that.