>USE MetaData!rvContacts from the NT W/S (connected to the SQL Server via 10mbit backbone) takes 10 minutes to run. This is acceptable.
>
>USE MetaData!rvContacts from the Server running SQL Server takes 88 minutes to run. This is NOT acceptable.

Just a thought -- I ran into a similar problem when I started using nt workstation, it turned out that VFP was at fault -- Namely, the temp files were on the C drive and the application was running on the D drive and doing some local processing to that drive.

Check some other things between the server setup of VFP and the workstation set up, there may be other things that are effecting your result, like buffer sizes, packet sizes, and so forth that you can modify under tools-options.

Good luck!