>Can you tell me some, I wondering what complications you did find that I didn't find. Especially for lookuptables you don't have to worry about RI that much.
>

Try having to replicate out to many sites. It either all has to work, or none of it should work, in order to keep all sites consistient. It is a PITA to manage. Once again, Walter, you are more of a theorhetical guy. Getting out there and really doing it on the other hand, is another thing all together..

>How does active directory fit in here ?

It would take me too long to explain here to do the topic justice. Best for you to go to msdn.microsoft.com, and search on the exact phrase "Active Directory".

>Absolutely a 2. But as I said the two engines are not mutual exclusive. With the replication manamger I could replicate the some (lookup) data to VFP.
>

The corporate standard is SQL-Server. i.e., storage mediums like DBF's are deemed to not be secure enough. Now, what are you going to do? And, if you think this scenario is odd, it happens all of the time...