First let me say i am only a novice programmer, and by no means an sql guru. We have an app at work that is and has been under heavy dev from the vendor for sometime (2+ years). It runs as a MSSQL instance on one of our servers, and there is a client install for the desktops. The client software is making direct sql calls to the database.(it also has a local mysql instance to handle the client settings) there is 6-12 ports that had to be opened up for the communication. Looking at the sql manager, i can see direct sql calls from various clients.
Seems to me this is entirely the wrong approach. the closest thing i have done to this, was a webpage + php+ mysql. The webpage would make requests, and all the processing would be serverside, then simply display the results. The sluggishness my users feel i think is from the clientside request+ processing of the sql data.
ps: i realize that if they have not done it by now, switching to another paradigm seems out of the question. i just want to know if i am way off base.
You are way off base.
The client side has much more processing power.
Consider the case of one server and 5 clients. Even is the server has 3 times the power of a client the clients as a whole are still 5:3 more powerful.
If the application is sluggish it was probably poorly written. You need to investigate the root cause. Client / Server is a leading practice in design, I’m guessing it is not the root cause. It might be badly implemented or there might be other reasons. Your comment about having a local mysql sounds very fishy to me — there should be no need for this.