Searching a linked Access97 table

I am using Access97(on the desktop) to pull data from a linked Access97 table that resides on the network. I first search for the correct records, once found I import them from the network to the desktop database. Since I can’t speed up pulling data from the network, I am looking for a way to speed up the search. Using Query and the find first methods are too slow, does anyone know a better way?