Thanks for your input.

Unfortunately there is no ODBC driver available (we are connecting to a very proprietary OO database).

We have so far been successful in the first step of reading IP packets directly into VFP via the use of a DLL created using PowerBasic but we still have several issues to resolve (e.g. intermittent fatal errors).

I suspect that, should we resolve these issues, it may become a very useful technique in other situations as well as for the immediate app that we are trying to develop. For example we distribute information regarding the location of trains on a railroad in semi-real time. Currently this is done by each terminal client reading the location of each train in a server based table every few seconds. It might be possible to cut down on network traffic by simply broadcasting the train locations in IP packets directly rather than opening a unique connection for each terminal. (Of course I may just be blowing smoke)