I wasted a week or so on DCOM, decided that it was too involved ( security!! ) to use in a non professional client installation where they would never be able to add new users!

Instead, I use a dedicated machine that does the work behind the scenes ( merges data, calculates prices, etc ) in an endless loop . The data remains on the server.

Some tasks are routine, others are data driven ( put a record in the request file saying "reprice order 101" , etc )

Simple, I also use a sleep command to give good keyboard response on the data cruncher!

Mike