Hi Alan,
sorry, but your remarcs meet to local networks only.

> There's a very good reason for keeping packets small. And that's the
> cost of re-transmission. Small packets are faster to re-transmit.

....on LAN

regarding a WAN connection, each packet has to be checked and
redirected on every router it passes. This takes time. Using
encryption makes is even more worse.

> Now I know there is much talk about reducing the wire protocol for

FB but

> you can be experiencing something which has little to do with the packet
> size.
> I have replication taking place over a cable connection (not too much
> different in band width from DSL) and it is very fast.

Bandwith is not just bandwith ;-) It difers on how packets are
handled. F.e. on a point-to-point connection (like Cable, or ISDN)
paketsize becomes bland. Using an internetconnection pakets are most
relevant. (For example: a query sending 10MB with an ISDN modem to a
DB server takes 40' when using servers RAS access. Same query same
ISDN modem, but using an Internet connection takes up to 10 times
longer.) :-(

Guido,
I think you will have no chance to reduce the number of pakets. So you
will have to find a way to speed up their life-span.

On the other hand, I can't beliefe the is no one else using internet
based replications in the way you do. - Don't they have the same issue?

Cheers, Bert