> I have windows XP home edition.

You have our sympathies <g>

Seriously a lot of us have either tried XP and scrapped it,
or not moved over at all. Not sure what Microsoft left out
of the home version - certainly some of the important stuff
that means that even they can't do some thing on it. So
someone else will have to confirm that it actually does run
on XP home.

> The download created a Firebird folder. In the folder was the circular Firebird icon, showing 1.6 MB I think I recall (I've since deleted it). I clicked this, got the hourglass briefly and then back to the pointer. Nothing else happened. No I didn't check the Task Manager, but if Firebird was running, what would I see?

I presume that you downloaded Firebird-1.0.0.796-Win32.exe,
which then created a directory \Firebird, and subdirectories
below it?

When running that installer, I think that 'Server' is an
option you have to select as the default is just to enter
the client setup.

In the \Firebird directory there should have been an
isc4.gdb which is the 'security' database.

In \Firebird\bin there are the programs and on the start
button there should be a new set of Program entries for
Firebird.

If the package has installed correctly, and you selected
'server', then ibguard and ibserver should be listed in the
Task Manager.

The next step is to talk to it, which requires another
package. Personally I use IB_SQL from www.ibobjects.com
which allows you to 'play' with all sorts of things. Go to
the Connections tab, enter 'c:\Firebird\isc4.gdb' ( or where
you can find that file ) - default user SYSDBA and password
masterkey and hit the second button. Connect to database. If
everthing is working, then details below will fill in. In
which case use the third button, and you will be browsing
your first database. If not, the error messages should
indicate the problem.

The next step is then up to you.

--
Lester Caine
-----------------------------
L.S.Caine Electronic Services