Toolkit for Java and Network Bandwidth/Traffic Issues .....

Hi,

I have a thick swing client that uses the java toolkit to connect to the
AS400.

The number of users has increased recently and since then response time has
slow dramatically.  Our networking people did some testing and found that
interaction between the client and the server has been sending allot more
data than it seems like it should be.  For example pulling a customers
account information, name address, etc... maybe 20k worth of character data
is sending 300k of info across the network.

Basically all I know that I am doing that would cause network traffic is
declare a file, open the file, read the file and close the file.

Where is this extra traffic coming from?  Does the actually opening and
closing of a file send that much data?  Would I be better off switching to
JDBC, does it send less network traffic?

Any ideas as to what might be causing that extra traffic would be
appreciated.

Robert