At 08:05 PM 28/05/2003 +0300, you wrote:

>Hi !
>
>I have a very serious issue.
>
>It all started from a full Win98 network. On one computer we had a
>server program used internally in the company. The server program uses
>Firebird 796 for data backend that runs on the same machine as the
>server program.
>
>After we upgraded 2 PCs to Win XP (one of which is the machine we are
>running the server and database on), the server (database) is only
>accessible from the XP PCs, the 98 Pcs on which our client program runs
>refuse to connect to the database, no matter how we specify the
>connection string: 192.168.0.5:Path or ComputerName:Path. Also, ping
>works as normal, file sharing is there, etc.. From the 98 machines I
>can't even connect to the database via IB Console. IT gives the error:
>"Cannot establish a connection. Unknown Win32 error 10049". If I try to
>connect to the database server via NETBEUI, I get a "Cannot attach to
>password database". The database is sane, and from the two XP PCs
>everything works fine.
>
>
>
>Fact is , I can see the network from any PC, but the 98 stations cannot
>connect to the server's IP.
>Everything has remained the same, the workgroup, the IPs, etc.....
>
>Only TCP seems to be out of whack.
>Oh, and I tried something esle. I can telnet in from a 98 workstation to
>any of the two XP machines.
>
>What's the problem here? Please give me a hint , as this is a rather
>mission critical system we're running !

First, the workgroup is pertinent only to NetBEUI networking, it's not
related to TCP/IP at all.

There will be one or more of the following reasons why your Win98
workstations can't connect...
1. They are running an incompatible version of the client program
gds32.dll. The client must be located in the Windows directory of the 98
machines and must have the same build number as the server. Browse the
property sheet of gds32.dll on the 98 machines to check this. If you
installed a Borland-sourced tool after installing the Firebird client,
gds32.dll may have been overwritten...

2. Their c:\Windows\Hosts file contain either a host name or an IP address
that is incorrect for the XP server machine's (new?) IP address and/or
(new?) host name. Edit the Hosts file on one of the 98 clients and, when
it tests successfully, copy it to the other 98 clients.

3. One or more of the client machines is trying to connect using a bad
path string. Firebird will not allow any client to connect using one path
format, if another client has already opened the database file using a
different path format. It's so long now since that build, I can't remember
whether this protection applies to that build or not. Make sure you have
identical, correct ***TCP/IP*** path strings for all clients (including any
non-Win98 clients).

4. The Services entries on the server or client machines are incorrect or
don't match. I seem to recollect that build 796 did a faulty installation
of this. On Win98, look in c:/windows/services for an entry that says

gds_db 3050/tcp

5. As someone else mentioned, maybe the server is firewalling port
3050. However, (4) seems more likely, since you say your XP clients aren't
blocked from this port...

As a general comment, WHY are you using that old build??????? The release
version client avoids problem 4 by defaulting to port 3050 (along with a
bunch of bug-fixes since that ancient beta which you are using).

cheers
heLen