At 11:06 AM 1/02/2005 +1300, you wrote:

>I thought the path was relative to the client as I normally run Firebird on
>the same machine as the client.
>However the URL path is relative to the server.

As a minimum you should download the Firebird Quickstart Guide from the
main website.

>An alias is probably a good idea for a server running from an internet server.

It's a good idea for several reasons but immunity from packet sniffers is
not one of them. Regardless of whether you use aliasing or a hard-coded
path, opening your database server's URL to the Internet is going to make
your database (and therefore your server) vulnerable to DoS attacks, brute
force attempts to get sysdba access (and brute force attacks on an
8-character DES-encrypted password is kidstuff) and other horrors.

Zebedee, ssh, etc. will help to reduce the risk of sniffing - don't leave
your firewall without it - but do please understand what an imperfect world
we live in. Listen to the people who have advised you to use an n-tier
architecture.

HB