Hi Steve,

>MDSE is designed to work with 5 users or less, so I don't think you want to go there.

I couldn't resist jumping in here. MSDE is NOT limited to any number of users. 100 users can connect to an MSDE database is they want to. MSDE is configured to "slow down" a bit as the number of concurrent queriers increases. If I recall, the point at which that happens is 8 concurrent queries. Soooo, I can have 100 people connected and if only 5 or 6 of them are querying the database there is no difference between MSDE and full-blown SQL Server in this scenario. The key is the number of concurrent queries. If most queries in your system are just returning a row, or a limited number of rows then they'll probably execute very quickly. Even if you have 15 people connected, the odds of the all running a query at the exact same time is probably pretty low.

>15 users is certainly not a problem with VFP data, but the number of users is only one consideration you have to make.

I know I'll get shot for this but, yes, I would bail on the use of DBF files completely, we have. I'd go ahead and use MSDE for this application. In the event that it ever out grows MSDE, all you need to do is plug in SQL Server. NO APPLICATION CODE CHANGES will be required... you get instant scalability, instant security, instant remote administration, scheduled live backups, oh the list of things you get with a "real" database goes on and on... <g>

Hope this helps...