Help: Informix access from Delphi/NT clients

Several questions for C/S developers: Background ========== We currently have an existing 2-tier C/S system based on SGI hardware (for both the client and server) with an Informix database. The current system contains a geographic front-end and 'broadcasts' database updates from the central DB server to these clients as transactions are processed (approx 1 every 3 seconds) by a hand written central data manager process using a socket implementation. When the clients receive these custom broadcasts (in the form of a transaction packet), they update their displays. The broadcasting is intended to keep each client from having to re-access the Informix database every time data changes (which is often), as this would lead to a huge # of concurrent data requests and unnaceptable performance. A new project calls for migrating the client platform to Intel-based WinNT. This leads to the following questions: 1) The client interface (GUI) likely be developed in Borland Delphi (WinNT on Intel) with the geographics being handled via calls to a mapping DLL we wrote. >>Q. What DB access method can you recommend?? We have a significant amount of embedded SQL code which we are hoping to port to a data access module which can be called from Delphi. Potential third-party candidates include Rogue Wave's DBTools.h++. >> any others ? 2) How should the WinNT clients receive transaction broadcasts from the data manager server? >> Are there third-party communications packages out there that allow WinNT to receive socket-based transaction packets from SGI servers?? 3) Assuming that the WinNT clients *can* receive broadcasts from the server, how should they maintain the data in memory to avoid all going back to the database?? Current implementation on SGI clients uses linked lists and arrays and is quite cumbersome to maintain (requiring much 'institutional' knowledge. Any help on these questions is *greatly* appreciated. Feel free to forward any comments/advice to me at tamash@alk.com as well as to this newsgroup. Thanking you in advance, Bill T., tamash@alk.com