A network message containing the first record associated with a prefetch query was immediately sent to the remote client requesting it. Subsequent messages included the remaining records. Enabling a delay through the startup parameter -prefetchDelay, allows the OpenEdge server to fill the network message containing the first record with additional records before sending it to the remote client. Two additional startup parameters, -prefetchNumRecs and -prefetchFactor, determine the duration of the delay.

If you specify -prefetchDelay, only the behavior of the first network message is altered. The default behavior when -prefetchDelay is not specified, is to continue sending the first record in its own message, regardless of the -prefetchNumRecs and -prefetchFactor parameter values.