I have experienced similar slowdowns with my VFP app which also runs off a Novell server with temp files on the user's local PC.
After investigation the Network Admin found:
1> The backup software (ArcServe) was in a loop trying to backup some of the app's files that were open 24/7
2> On another occasion the slowdown was being caused by traffic caused by "Network Admin Ativities"
3> Faulty router hardware, causing multiple resends of packets of data
In all cases it was the result of reduced available bandwith between the user's PC and the Server

In these cases I helped troubleshoot by running a short VFP program to read and copy 5Mb files to/from the affected server 1 a minute and time and log the results for examination later. It helped pinpoint the times when the slowdown occurred, which helped Network Admin's investigation.

Don't know about the VDM files - the app converted from FPDOS to VFP several years ago.


>I have an old FoxPro 2.6 application that runs on Novell. The .fxp is run from a shared Novell drive. The config.fp has the TEMP directory set to go to a local directory on each client. At any given time there are 30 - 40 clients running this app from dos machines and Windows machines. Four times in the last year this program has slowed down to the point where a task that normally takes 5 minutes is requiring 2.5 hours. Screens that should load in seconds take a minute to load. It's as if the entire system is running in slow motion. We cannot find any reason for this, why it starts, and why 3 - 4 hours later the application will suddenly start running at normal speed again. We have virus protection on the Novell server, Trend Micro, but it is running 24/7 so it shouldn't interfere.
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>We purge deleted files from the Novell drive every night. We purge any FoxPro temp files from the shared directory where the app is every morning. The network traffic is normal. Wednesday I took the application off line, packed all the tables, and re-created the indexes from scratch to kill any index bloat. This slow-motion effect is happening more often. We had a slow down like this on Monday and this morning another one started.
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>Has anyone seen a situation like this before?