> We have four development machines that all are running Windows XP.
>
> Four run fine with no delay on connection while the fourth one
> sometimes takes forever to connect. We have a few
> clients running Windows XP with no problem, but one complains that it
> sometimes takes 5 to 10 minutes to connect to the database.

Is this a local or remote connection? If it is a local connection,
then you'd best deactivate the system protection feature or run
Firebird and all the databases on a partition with the system
protection facility disabled.

Well, just a(nother) shoot in the dark would be to disable
the integrated (kiddy) firewall ...

Regards,
Thomas.