This almost a hardware question, but it relates to client/server, so I hope I can get some ideas from somebody here. I am about to propose to a client to upgrade to a simple client/server setup using DCOM for some of their slowest tasks. They don't want to spend the money to go with SQL server, and they have a Novell server.

My idea is to have a dedicated PC running windows (my DCOM server), receive the DCOM requests act on them (using the database on the novell server), and then return a temporary table (in the Novell server) for the client to access. This of course would only be beneficial if there is a way to connect the DCOM server to the novell server in such a way that it would have quick access to the data (without the traffic go out on the rest of the network). I don't know much about routers, but I would think that there is away to isolate the traffic and to connect the Novell server with the DCOM server in such a way to increase the throughput.