Using Distributed Agents to Create Efficient Custom Partitions
It is recommended that you use push subscriptions when creating data partitions using transformable subscriptions. If you intend to use transformable pull subscriptions instead, you can decrease the amount of data sent over the network by running the Distribution Agent on the Distributor using DCOM instead of on the Subscriber.
The advantage of this functionality is that the filtering takes place at the Distributor, and only the data included in a partition is sent over the network. If the Distribution Agents were located at each Subscriber, all the published data would travel over the network before being filtered at the Subscriber. Remote agent activation works best on Microsoft® Windows® 2000 and requires additional configuration when using Windows 98 and Windows NT® 4.0. For information about configuring replication for distributed pull agents, see Remote Agent Activation.