>With odbc, all you are actually sending over the network is the sql statment, and all you get back is the result... the index and database files, which are stored on the server, never get actually moved to the client workstation.

The "ODBC Driver" executes on the *Client* in a "file server" setup. There is no "sending" of sql over the network (as in a client/server setup with an "SQL Server" or DCOM type of backend).

Any "increase" in thruput is probably due to "recoding" of the relevant statements going from "native VFP" to "ODBC/Remote Views"; implying that the orignal VFP statements were not fully "optimized" to begin with.

All a "file server" does is accept request for "file offsets" and "byte lengths" to read/write; it has no clue what to with with an "SQL statement", whether it came from an ODBC driver or VFP's "native data engine" (or MS Access for that matter).