Hi, Grigore.

>What do you say: creating a VFP-based sql server is feasible? I mean a VFP app which runs silently on a computer and it's only job is to listen a port and serve records. I know this isn't the only thing a real sql server does, but still - it could work, I'd say. With some administrative tools it's almost there.

You can take a look at my old article:
http://www.levelextreme.com/Magazine/July2002/Page22.asp

It's just a start. Anyway, producing a reliable database-engine involves a lot more than that. Anyway, you can go as far as you feel comfortable with it. Despite the idea (the article is more oriented to show COM+ components usage), I usually recommend going to SQL Server or another DB engine.

Notice that for small installations MSDE is a good and free options. Take in mind that its limitation is about 5 *concurrent* queries. That means that given a properly optimized DB, you can support many users with it. The performance loss begins when more than 5 simultaneous queries occur and they get queued (but serviced!). If transactions are quick enough, and your application doesn't demand LOTS of hits al the time, you can scale up with no problems.

Hope this helps,