>I have 4 experts all telling me different things. :-)
>
>Any of you guys have the email of someone on the Foxteam that can and would answer this for me?
>
>>I think remote automation is a subset of DCOM. But I could be wrong.
>>
>>>>Check out Chapter 16 of the VFP Programmer's Guide. The last section "Using Remote Automation" describes how to set up remote automation. It appears to be a similar beast to DCOM (a precursor perhaps), but different tools are used to install, configure and run it.
>>>
>>>Remote Automation is pretty much DCOM before they gave it a fancy name.

Remote Automation is not the same thing as DCOM. As an example, Windows 95 did not start out with the ability to use DCOM. Win95 could, however, use Remote Automation. Obviously, the two are not equal.

So what is the difference? According to the DCOM spec (sorry, couldn't find a link on the Web), DCOM is "an application-level protocol for object-oriented remote procedure calls useful for distributed, component-based systems of all types." So, DCOM is more of a protocol than just the actual creation of remote COM objects.

Conversely, Remote Automation is simply concerned with creating a COM object on another machine. Notice how RACMGR32.EXE grays out the net protocol dropdown if you select the DCOM transport? That's because DCOM is doing its own thing and doesn't need to be told how to talk across the wire. In addition, there are issues with scalibility, security, and fault tolerance that Remote Automation simply doesn't address, or DCOM addresses in a better manner.

Sorry no time to type more; have to prep for a presentation at tonight's local VFP SIG (on using Win32 API, what else?). Check the following link to get a better understanding of the DCOM architecture: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?URL=/library/backgrnd/html/msdn_dcomtec.htm.