Hi Ivan,

> Are you aware that due to RLE compression algorithm used by Firebird
> for storing rows on disk even empty string stored into
> VARCHAR(32000) field will occupy 500 bytes ? (and thus only few
> rows will fit onto database page which can drastically reduce
> preformance)
>
> Have you considered storing data in blob and convert them to
> varchar using UDF for reading ?

Diskspace and CPU time are not a concern with this application. Pure
transfer speed over the VPN is. The data was originally stored in
blobs, I've moved away from them specifically to address speed issues
across a VPN connection.

If I had designed the database originally and had full control over
the application design then of course I would use blobs. Since I
don't have full control and I've only been brought in at the end of
the applications development, I'm doing what I can to make it run at a
respectable speed.

Ryan.