Network Performance

Problem: Poor Network Performance

It's taking my applications an inordinate amount of time to connect to Informix databases and to pull data back from it. When I'm on the server and using a shared memory connection, the data comes back fast, but over I-Net, the speed seems way too slow.

Solution: FET_BUF_SIZE

Explore the FET_BUF_SIZE environment variables on both clients and hosts. The Informix defaults often result in the transmission of lots of empty packets. A good number to start out with is 8192. Also, look at your applications to be sure that they are sending data over the network only when it is actually needed. Do as much filtering as possible with your WHERE clauses on the server rather than sending data over the network only to filter it out by the client. Explore the use of VARCHARs if you have lots of large character variables that may not be totally filled. Look at using stored procedures and PREPARED/EXECUTED statements to reduce network traffic during the formulating of SQL statements.