An important aspect of both Application and VI refnums is their network transparency. This means you can open refnums to objects on remote computers in the same way you open refnums to those objects on your computer.

After you open a refnum to a remote object, you can treat it in exactly the same way as a local object, with a few restrictions. For operations on a remote object, the VI Server sends the information about the operation across the network and sends the results back. The application looks almost identical regardless of whether the operation is remote or local.