Alan,

A> [Alan McDonald] well - thinking more on this, I have to wonder why gbak over
A> a 100Mbit line isn't faster than it is. I mean gbak should just be asking
A> the server to do all the work should't it? The only thing traversing the
A> line after the instruction to backup is the message feedback.

unless you use the -service switch then all the data is transferred to
the client. gbak writes the (local) backup file directly. If you
backup to a network path then things get worse as the data travels
from the server to the machine on which gbak runs and from there to
the machine where the network share is. If you use the -service switch
then the data stays on the server machine (unless you pass a network
path as a backup file name, in which case the data travels from the
server to the machine where the network share is).

A> So why is it
A> remarkably faster to backup under embedded control Vs TCP connection?

First when you are backing up under program control you are using the
services API, which is equivalent to gbak's -service switch.
Then a local or (even more so) embedded connection is way faster than
any TCP/IP based connection, including one to localhost.

Ciao
--
Nando Dessena
http://www.flamerobin.org