Joe,

> So, why is it that IBO was able to fix it, but it seems so difficult to fix in IB?

as others have explained, the solution belongs in the server. You can do
exactly what IBO does to be sure you're on the safe side in the
meantime. Just parse the connection string in TDatabase's
BeforeConnection event and raise an exception if it doesn't conform to
your rules, which may be:

- a drive letter must be present.
- the drive letter must be followed by a backslash.

> Since my application is installed by the users, I can't personally check every user's system. They do not use paths directly in my software. They all use BDE aliases. But, each client could have the BDE alias specified slightly different. Does that still present a problem?

Yes.

> What about if some users specify the server by host name, and others by IP address, but the rest of the physical path is the same?

Ciao
--
____
_/\/ando