To understand what needs to be changed, we'll examine a simple model of how data access occurs. We will examine two typical instances:
A file server database stores the data on a file server, but the engine runs on the remote PC. The remote PC reads and locks records of the data files with a common mechanism shared by other users of the data files.
A database server receives a request from the remote PC. The server uses the engine running on the host to read and lock records. The results are sent by the server back to the remote PC.
We can become easily confused with the language of client and server. To clarify matters, we will use these terms:
The database engine would be at the host PC for true client/server applications. The database engine would be at the remote PC for pseudo-client/server applications.